Stanley Barry Smokler

Stanley Barry Smokler

~ Steel Sculptor and Teacher ~ 

1944 – 2025

After gracefully living with Frontotemporal Degeneration for over ten years, Stanley Barry Smokler (Stan or Stan the Man to all who loved him) died comfortably and peacefully at Noon, January 17th, 2025.  He departed in the manner he lived his life – surrounded by family and friends whom he generously bathed with loving warmth, affection, playfulness, humor, laughter, and tenderness.

Born November 27th, 1944, in New York City, Stan was the son of William and Gertrude Smokler. Stan met Madeline Lewis in 1985 with whom he shared 40 years of love and marriage and proudly created his greatest source of joy, daughter, Eleanor (Elly) Smokler. Stan was the very kindest of men who loved well and was truly beloved in return.

Stan was an immensely talented artist. After completing his MFA from the Pratt Institute in 1975, Stan began a lifelong journey in NYC of creating steel assemblage sculpture shown nationally and internationally.  Reclaiming and transforming found steel objects to create evocative, engaging works of art, his abstract, expressionist sculpture spans a range of reference from geometric to the organic. Twenty-five years ago, he moved his foundry studio from the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, NY to Marshall Bridge Road along the Red Clay Creek in Kennett Square, PA.  There, Stan continued creating a prolific body of work until 2020. His recent Delaware Art Museum Retrospective honored Stan’s significant contribution to art as well as his generous support of other artists through years of his highly acclaimed Marshall Bridge Studio workshops; as well as mentoring and teaching for 20 years between 1997-2017 at DCAD (Delaware College of Art and Design in partnership with Pratt Institute and the Corcoran School of Art and Design).

We are in tremendous gratitude to the attentive and gentle support of the aides of Delaware Accent Hospice and The Summit who helped us fill Stan’s last days with compassion and caring. Services will be held privately. To view his online tribute and to share a memory with his family, please visit www.kuzoandfoulkfh.com.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Delaware Art Museum or Delaware Contemporary in his memory.

Arrangements by Kuzo Funeral Home of Kennett Square, PA.

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