After a long and adventurous life, Stan Zent passed away under hospice care while residing at Menorah Manor’s skilled nursing facility in St. Petersburg, Fla., on March 10, 2025, at the age of 89. His passing came a few weeks shy of his 90th, and nine months after the death of his beloved wife Amy (Amy's obituary), to whom he was devoted for their 65 years of marriage.

Stan was born in 1936 to Dorotha (Anderson) and Russell Zent, and was raised in the northern Indiana town of Roanoke along with his younger brother Phil. During all four of his years at Roanoke High School, Stan was on the track team and in the band, where he became 1st-chair clarinet. He also sang in choir and smaller choral groups, and was Student Council President in his senior year. Both Stan and Phil developed an interest in music, and both went on to become school band and music directors.

Stan played in a U.S. Army band during his three years of military service and pursued his undergraduate degree, focusing on music, at Indiana Central College (now Indianapolis University). Later, in 1967, he completed his Masters in education at Indiana University. At ICC he met and fell in love with Amy Buskirk, who was pursuing her degree in education. They married in the Spring of 1959 at her hometown church in the small farming community of Nine Mile, which is just south of Ft. Wayne, Ind., and not far from his hometown of Roanoke.

After beginning their teaching careers together in Indianapolis and starting a family with the birth of their son Sherman, they accepted teaching positions in Alaska. For two school years, between 1962 and 1964, they taught and lived first in Barrow, and then Cordova, Alaska. The experience kindled a love of travel, learning about other cultures, and making new connections and friends that shaped their future professional and personal lives. In the ensuing years, they taught in Bangkok, Thailand; Isfahan, Iran; Seoul, Korea; and Okinawa, Japan.

In between overseas teaching stints and travels during summers and vacations, they returned for a few years at a time to a house they retained on the south-side of Indianapolis, where they continued their teaching careers, pursued additional education and, in 1969, grew their family to four with the adoption of their second son, Jon. In Indianapolis and abroad, Stan directed band or music programs both large and small at a variety of grade levels. In later years, he turned exclusively to helping budding musicians with one-on-one tutoring, at which he excelled and was much sought after.

Stan was proficient at playing all brass and woodwinds, but the clarinet remained his primary instrument, and throughout his later years of tutoring and retirement he would “keep up the lip,” as he would say, by playing in several different community bands and groups in both Indianapolis and the St. Petersburg, Fla., area. During his snowbird winters and final years of living full-time in South Pasadena and Gulfport, Fla., he played with the South Pasadena Community Band and the New Horizons Band of Gulfport.

Along with Amy, Stan retained a life-long devotion to the United Methodist faith, and they were active in church communities everywhere they lived. After each return to Indianapolis, they re-nourished ties with Rosedale Hills United Methodist, and during their retirement winters and final years in the St. Petersburg area, they worshipped at Gulfport First United Methodist. Both were also active Indiana Central alumni, especially in support of international students that they often hosted for holiday meals. Stan is fondly remembered by several for helping them learn to drive and obtain their U.S. driver’s license.

Stan loved to stay active and on the move — engaging with people and living life in the moment. Anyone within his sight was a potential new friend, even if just a friend for a few minutes. He was preceded in death by his son Jon, 55, in 2017; his brother Phil, 85, in 2025; and his wife Amy, 89, in 2025.

His generous and congenial spirit lives in students, friends and acquaintances around the globe. He will be remembered by his remaining family and relatives for his quick smile, supportive interest in their lives, and incurable thrift store habit. He is survived, and deeply missed, by his immediate family of Sherman and his wife Angel, and his grandchildren Sawyer, Carly Rae and Mary.

Stan and Amy’s cremated remains will be interred in the late summer or fall of 2026, in the cemetery at the Nine Mile, Ind., United Methodist Church where they married.