A Tribute to Stan Banton

My dear friend Stan passed away a few days ago. It was not a surprise but nonetheless, difficult news. I last saw Stan a little over a year ago when we made the trek to Knob Creek, KY for the annual machine gun shoot.

It was a scene out of a B movie, and fittingly Stan made reservations at a B motel for me and a few other friends. Most everyone in the lobby was casually cradling fully automatic weapons like it was normal. Had everyone been smoking a cigarette it would have seemed unreal.

It would be an understatement to say, “they broke the mold when they made him”. Stan was the most eccentric person I have ever known. I loved him dearly. He was scary smart, witty, and lived life to the fullest. I learned a lot from Stan.

I first met Stan in the mid 90s. He flew in to meet me when I lived in Baltimore. We had chatted on the phone, having met virtually on the AI Forum. He literally flew in for the sole purpose to sit and chat in the airport for a few hours. Then he flew back home. We were fast friends ever since. One day, if you catch me with some time on my hands, ask me to share some Stan stories.

You might not have known Stan, but you should have. He was an early inventor of Automated Valuation Models. Stan was a math PhD and an MAI. He was a practicing appraiser for years in Huntsville, AL after he taught mathematics at the University of Tennessee. Stan was, to the best of my knowledge, the only modeler who approached AVMs with an appraiser’s mind. His model incorporated MLS data. Eventually he sold his company to Transunion.

Stan once gave me a little history lesson on math. “Joan, did you know the American Indians had no numerical system, unlike the Romans and Arabs? They traded furs with settlers as one, two, three… “many”.

To my friend Stan, from whom I learned “many” things, may God bless you. We shared an immeasurable amount of love and respect.