Name/Title: Thornton Stanley II, President of Stanley Landscaping and Construction Company
How long have you been on the TARCOG Board? At least 15 years, but I’ve been attending meetings for 50 years or more because when I was a child, if I wasn’t in school, I went everywhere with my father, who was a board member starting in 1968. Since I’ve been on the board, I have served on the executive committee.
What has been your biggest professional achievement? Our company won the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Small Business Person of the Year in 2001. At the time, my father was president and I was vice president, but my dad always said there’s no big you’s and little I’s, that everything we do is a team effort. So that was a great recognition for our company.
On a personal note, one of my greatest joys was when our company developed a subdivision and got to name the streets so that my mother and father’s names intersected each other. They both got to see it before they passed, and it gave them, and me, great joy.
What career advice do you live by? Who gave it to you? Eight hours work for eight hours pay is what my dad said, and it works from an employee or employer standpoint. From employer to employee, it’s that we’re paying you to work for eight hours but don’t want to take anything else from you. It’s something we’ve really taken to heart. And it applies when we’re working for someone. It means that we’re working eight hours for eight hours pay and at the end of a project, they see the value we bring and want us to work for them again.
What would be the theme song of your life right now? I don’t really have a song, but I do have a theme my mom instilled in us that comes to mind. She kept all the grandchildren after daycare or school. She had a room set up for them to study or work in with five computers, three printers and countless books. She had a saying she kept posted on the wall that we all continue to use to this day, even the grandchildren who are now all adults, and it was “Work hard, play fair, be nice to others and good things will come your way.”
Who is someone who’s made a big impact on your life? Why? My mother and father. The things they taught us, just like my mother’s saying. We did say it, think and believe it enough that three of four children in our family came back to work for our company and live in the city, all of us less than half a mile away from where our parents lived. They were two very accomplished individuals in different ways. My mother had a doctorate in English from Vanderbilt, and my dad started a construction company in 1961 in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement, which could not have been easy. But they believed in working hard and playing fair, and we learned from both of them.
What is a fun fact that people probably don’t know about you. I enjoy the outdoors, used to be a horse man but I enjoy riding motorcycles now.
Where are you from? I am from Huntsville; and graduated from Huntsville High School.
Do you have any hobbies? It goes back to the outdoors. I enjoy motorcycle riding and spending times with my cows. It’s very peaceful.
Favorite place you’ve traveled? Las Vegas and not because it’s a gambling capital. We took a family trip there when the kids were young. We went between Christmas and New Year’s so there wasn’t the usual traffic. We did a tour and learned the history of the original casinos and the families behind them from the beginning, and it was interesting. We also went to Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon as part of the Vegas trip, so it’s all of those things combined.
What’s one item you can’t live without? Mountain Dew. Not Mello Yello. Not Sprite. Mountain Dew.
TARCOG Board Member Thornton Stanley II