Captain Jack Thomas Stillman

Captain Jack with the Steamer Easton which he worked on for almost ten years and finished about two months before passing.

My father, Captain Jack passed away Sunday September 14, 2014 at the age of 85.  The official obituary is listed below.

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Captain Jack Thomas Stillman departed this life at his home Windsor Meade of Williamsburg, Va., on Sept. 14, 2014.  Raised in Mathews County, Va., Captain Stillman began his Merchant Mariner career at age 16 working for the Bay Line and Standard Oil of New Jersey (Exxon), advancing from mess man to Captain, retiring in 1986 from Exxon Shipping with 41 years of service.  He was predeceased by his parents, Reuben and Eva Pierce; son, Kent; two brothers, and five sisters. He is survived by his wife, Mildred; son, Keith his wife Marlene; daughter, Christy Dabney; grandson, Travis Rose; siblings, Margie Snow, Frances Ward, Anne Collier, John Robert Pierce, their spouses, as well as many nieces and nephews.  The family will receive friends in the Fellowship Hall of Central United Methodist Church, 121 Church Street, Mathews, Va., on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014, from 1-2:30 p.m. Services will be private with burial at sea.  Memorials may be made to the Mathews Memorial Library, P.O. Box 980, Mathews, Va. 23109, the Mathews Maritime Foundation, P.O. Box 1201, Mathews, Va. 23109, or a charity of your choice.
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On Friday October 3rd we distributed his cremated remains on the Chesapeake Bay.  The ceremony was performed with several landlubbers on board and just before small craft warnings were issued.  It ended with the boat breaking down, the landlubbers getting sick and the boat having to be towed in.  That is a story that will get told many times over.

Being a ship's captain my father possessed all of those traits normally associated with someone who is used to getting his way, but he also was very generous.  There are three stories I want to relate that demonstrate his generosity.

His first job (at the age of sixteen) was with the Baltimore Steam Packet Company (aka Old Bay Line) on Chesapeake Bay steamers as a night watchman.  He was promoted to forward lookout when the man holding that job got sick and had to quit.  A few weeks later the man came back looking for work but was told by the captain the job was filled and there were no openings.  My father upon hearing this went to the captain and told him the man could have his job back.  He said the man had a family and needed the job more than he did and he (my father) could find another job.  Where upon my father left the Baltimore Steam Packet Company which set him on his course to employment with ESSO and a very profitable future.

In the late forties / early fifties he was in New York getting his shoes shined on the street by a boy with a wooden box.  He would have been either a OS (ordinary seaman) or an AB (able seaman) at the time.  He asked the shoe shine boy where he was from and was told he was from Alabama and was going back as soon as he had enough money.  My father asked him how much he needed and he replied fifty dollars upon which my father gave him fifty dollars.

I don't know the time frame of this story but believe it to be in the sixties.  My father was in a grocery checkout line behind a woman that had more items than she could afford.  Seeing she was in need, he looked at the items she was trying to purchase and only saw necessities.  He paid her bill.

There are many more examples and as his fortunes increased his generosity also increased.  But these three stories demonstrate his willingness to help even when it meant hardship to him.  Most of his efforts to assist people were done either anonymously or very quietly.  He was never looking for nor wanted any recognition for these deeds.

He will be missed not just by his family but by those he helped.