Stan was Watsonville to the core.

Stanley Norman Secondo was born on July 28, 1913, in Watsonville to Mr. and Mrs. Peter Secondo, whose family has lived in the Pajaro Valley for over one hundred years. Stan attended local schools, enrolled in Watsonville High School and was graduated in June 1933. Following graduation he entered Santa Clara University, where he studied for the next four years.

After completing college, Secondo became active in the Watsonville business and social community. He joined two friends, Marty Franich and Harold Mignola, in the automobile and service station business and was a member of the Elks, Lions, Service, and Rod and Gun Clubs and Native Sons of the Golden West.

When the war began, Stanley volunteered for active duty and on December 13, 1941, was given a commission in the US Army Finance Corps. Secondo was sent to Santa Ana, California, for training and then to the finance school at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana. Following a brief assignment at Bakersfield, California, he was promoted to first lieutenant and appointed as the Finance Officer of the Merced Airbase.

In June 1942, Stanley Secondo married Patti Ann Shaw of Watsonville in the Fort Ord Chapel. After returning to the Merced AAFB, he began making plans for a forthcoming flight to Denver, Colorado, in July for an Army Finance meeting.

Stanley Secondo and Boyd Friis departed on their fatal flight to Denver on August 25, 1943. Following the airplane crash that took his life, the remains of First Lieutenant Stanley Norman Secondo were returned to Watsonville for a funeral and burial in the Valley Catholic Cemetery.

(CBR; SCSn August 28, 1943 1:3, WRP August 28, 1943 1:2, August 28, 1943 1:3)