Celebration for The Acting Duke of Subiaco: Barney Stanley

Hi, my name is Aaron Garbin. I am a younger cousin, close friend, and now Executive Assistant to the Resting Duke of Subiaco: Barney Stanley.

If you spent any time with Barney, there is no doubt that you would have shared a well humored and engaging connection, likely filled with great stories and the occasional song. Connecting with people, irrespective of age or status, was easily the most valuable thing in the world to Barney. In turn, that connection was a source of great personal value for so many people.

In this great spirit, we are looking to give Barney a fitting farewell and offer people the chance to contribute to seeing that happen.

A contribution here will go towards fulfilling Barney's wish of being cremated. In our best attempt to honor and celebrate Barney, there is no intention of having a viewing at his cremation, or to try and cram our recollections and goodbyes into a 45-minute chapel service.

For so many of us, Barney lived through stories. This was both in the engaging antics that created them as well as the humor and perspective with which he retold them. In this spirit, we are looking to have a celebration at the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club where friends and family of Barney can gather and pay tribute by sharing our memories and stories, or even just share a few words as they see fit. We will set aside blocks of time at the celebration for this to happen, there will be a lectern with microphone available.

While this event will not likely be streamed, with the agreement from participants, we will look to record, package and share as many stories as people are willing to allow. If there is interest, we may even be able to take phone calls from interstate or overseas friends who wish to share a story, or their connection, and participate in that fashion. For people that don't like speaking, but still wish to share, we will look to take written submissions and have them read out.

The date of the celebration will be announced once it is locked in.

I know that this is a difficult time where so many of us have lost someone so unique and so dear. I truly believe that Barney, the man as I knew him, would love to know that we were coming together like this, in a place that has meant so much to him over the last 10 years (The Yacht Club), to do the thing that I think he loved the most: go crabbing off the jetties.... ooops, I mean connecting and telling stories.

As Barney would often sign off, in his honor let's lead each other there,

Happy Trails.