The speaker at the July 17th meeting was Len Sandler who spoke about his recent book, Because of You, We Live! which is the "untold story of George and Simone Stalnaker. Len is a former adjunct professor at BU's School of Management and holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior. He is the author of several other books.The story of the Stalnaker's is both fascinating and inspirational, a story of courage and heroism growing out of World War II. Simone was born into a privileged life on the French Riviera. At 19 she became a spy for the British and took to the streets with a rifle in hand as a part of the French Resistance and was finally imprisoned and faced a death sentence from which she was spared. George was born to a Depression era family in Iowa and graduated from West Point. He was a pilot in the Army Air corps and rose to the rank of Lt. Colonel. He flew a mission that destroyed the last remaining reinforcement bridge for the Germans at Normandy. His B-26 was hit and he bailed out into Gestapo headquarters.
George and Simone met in Parish, lived in Levittown, New York and raised a family. These two seemingly conventional people were heroes to whom we all owe a great debt of gratitude.