Stanley Walter Burkey, 87, passed away on Thursday, July 3, 2025 in Kampala, Uganda, after a sudden illness. Stan was born on May 3, 1938 in West Chester, PA, a son of the late Walter C. and Dorothy Gee Burkey.
Stan spent his childhood in Malvern, PA, attended Greentree Elementary School in Willistown, and graduated from Conestoga Senior High School, Berwyn, in 1956, receiving the Rensselaer Medal for Math and Science. Like his father and brother, he was active in Boy Scouting and became an Eagle Scout in Willistown Troop 78. He attended Penn State Forestry School 1956-58 before transferring to Yale University, graduating from Yale in 1961 with a B.E. (Honors) in Mechanical Engineering and the C. H. Plimpton Prize for high scholarship, ability and character. He was a Henry Fellow at Oxford University, England, 1961-62.
He enrolled in the Peace Corps in 1962, and married Kristin Eskeland of Oslo, Norway, the next year. They both taught secondary school in newly independent Nigeria, 1963-65. Upon the birth of their first child, they moved to Cambridge, MA, where Stan studied Business Administration at M.I.T. The family settled in Norway in 1966, where their second child was born.
Stan worked at the Norwegian Computing Institute 1966-70 and was an executive at the Norwegian Scout Association 1970-76. He became Program Coordinator of Save the Children Norway in 1977. From 1981 to 1984 he was first Deputy and then Resident Representative of Save the Children in Sri Lanka, receiving special thanks from the Sri Lankan Government for his role in coordinating relief operations for internally displaced Sri Lankans affected by the outbreak of civil war in 1983.
In 1986 Stan became Country Representative to Uganda for ACORD, an international development organization. From 1990-96 he was Country Representative for Quaker Service Norway in Uganda, and founded the Uganda Change Agent Association, which he served as Senior Advisor and later Executive Secretary 1997-2003. His book People First: A Guide to Self-Reliant Participatory Rural Development was published by ZED Books in 1993. Retiring at age 67, he chose to stay in Uganda, where he had spent twenty years promoting self-reliance and empowerment of the rural poor.
Stan was a life-long idealist whose hard work and dedication touched many lives. He never forgot his Pennsylvanian roots and stayed in contact with many of his classmates and fellow scouts, whose friendship he valued deeply. In retirement, he became passionate about genealogy and did his extended Burkey and Gee families a great service by researching their common ancestry.
He is survived by his son Tormod V. Burkey, his daughter Ingvild D. Burkey, and their mother Kristin; his grandson Emil Temim; his step-daughter Tindichebwa Mustafah and her three children Mia, Chloe and Ricky; his niece Suellen Burkey and grandniece Annie Klebanoff.
As he wished, part of his ashes have been spread in Lake Victoria and on an island in the Oslo fjord. The rest will be interred at Great Valley Presbyterian Church Cemetery, 2025 Swedesford Road, at 1:00 p.m. on November 6, followed by an informal gathering at 2:00 p.m. at Willistown Troop 78 Scout Cabin, 15 Mill Road, both in Malvern, PA 19355. All are warmly welcome.
Memories may be shared on his memory wall at memorialsource.com/memorial/stanley-walter-burkey