Stanton Jay Linden, 90, was born to Harry and Elsie Linden April 22, 1935 and died January 13, 2026 in Pullman, WA.  Growing up on a small family farm just outside Belgrade, MN, Stan benefitted from the joys of hard work and hunting and fishing, played in the high school band, sang in the choir, centered at football, jumped center at basketball and pitched baseball for the school and for the Town Team.  He loved watching the Cougars, Seahawks, Vikings and most games in between.  He kept lifelong friendships; some begun before first grade and maintained an active correspondence with his high school English teacher until Alzheimer's cruelly closed that portal for him.

Stan was one of the St. Olaf College students who worked summer jobs on a cruise ship which sailed the Great Lakes.  Lucille Benke was one of 21 waitresses on that ship.  Lucy and Stan were married in her Indiana home town Dec. 27, 1956.  Early family life was filled with graduate school for his Master's and Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota, the birth of their son Steven in November, 1958, vacations at a fishing camp in Northern MN with family and friends, and the rich musical and artistic culture of the Twin Cities.  It was a time of storefront theaters and the new Tyrone Guthrie Theatre, and on opening Night of Hamlet it was Sir Tyrone Guthrie himself directing.  The Metropolitan Opera performed a two-week run in Minneapolis annually which led to Stan seeking out concert halls and opera houses wherever he travelled, holding season tickets to the Seattle Opera (while also visiting Steve in Kirkland), and lately going to the Kenworthy Theater for the live Metropolitan Opera performances on Saturdays.

For 35 years at Washington State University Stan mainly taught English Renaissance and seventeenth-century literature from Shakespeare through Milton.  He wrote, edited and co-edited five books with titles like Darke Hieroglyphics, The Alchemy Reader and Mystical Metal of Gold, published numerous articles on the relationship between alchemy and English literature, and reported his research regularly at professional meetings.  He co-edited Critique, Studies in Modern Fiction, a journal that covered many of the 60's works of John Cheever, John Updike, James Baldwin and others while in graduate school at Minnesota.  For twenty years prior to retirement, he was the editor of Cauda Pavonis, a journal focused on early religious and philosophical traditions.  His scholarship was recognized and cited by scholars in his field here and abroad.  Stan could recite appropriate passages from poets, like John Donne and other literary figures when the conversation prompted it, usually at dinner parties.

Research paled and the undiscovered but interesting philosophers and courtiers were left to oblivion when Stan abandoned them for sailing the Carpe Diem with his mate, Walt Miller, on Lake Coeur d'Alene.  They had 15 good years, often the only boat on the bay (maybe because others had more sense), but they'd have "the best day of sailing ever!  As and advisor to the WSU Outing Club, he travelled from Pullman to Sun Valley, Grand Targhee, Jackson Hole and the renamed Palisades at Tahoe accompanying the student skiers, with Lucy and Steve along for the adventure.

Not many Minnesotans (or others) relish shoveling snow, but Stan truly enjoyed the snow and cold.  In warmer weather he gardened.  His roses often lasted into the winter.  Stan and Lucy travelled independently and with friends from grad school for years, while Stan spent summer research and sabbaticals mainly at the British Library in London and the Bodleian Library in Oxford.  Besides making fast friends abroad he built lasting memories to reflect upon during his decline:  ambling among the standing stones at Stonehenge before they were fenced, New Year's Eve in Paris on the Champs Elysees, sleeping on a tatami mat in a Tokyo family's high-rise apartment and skiing the trails at Mazama with friends.  Stan was a runner.  He ran or jogged daily on Hampstead Health before taking the Tube to the British Library, he dared to pass the Lorelei twice each morning from his apartment on the Rhine.  He jogged along the Nile past President Mobarak's motorcade with armed guards scrutinizing him, he ran regularly from the gym to the airport, and did Bloomsdays and fun runs collecting a trove of tee shirts.  He may have been as committed to running as to his profession, family, and the many friends who will miss this gentle, modest man.  He couldn't accept lunch dates because at noon he ran!

Stan is survived by Lucy and son, Steve, and her nieces and nephews.  He supported the Washington Idaho Symphony, St. Olaf English Department for new faculty to be able to attend conferences, Public Radio and Television, the Auditorium Chamber Series, WSU scholarships, and other worthy causes.  If you wish to honor him, choose one or your own worthy cause.  Observing his wishes there will be no service, but when summer comes, we will gather to remember him.

We thank those who cared for and gave comfort to Stan:  Gentiva Hospice, the Friends of Hospice, and Nancy and the caregivers at Carolstar.  Corbeill Funeral Home of Pullman, WA has been entrusted with arrangements.