Stanley Joseph Lukowicz, II

Stanley Joseph Lukowicz II passed away Monday, May 12, 2025 in the presence of family at the age of 77 years old. Stanley’s life is as storied as his larger-than-life personality.

Stanley was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1947 and spent time as a child in Florida and Texas before settling in the Compton, Watts area of Los Angeles. It was in Los Angeles he learned the invaluable lessons of hard work and the hustle that made him such a successful businessman and entrepreneur. Stanley had his first jobs at the age of 9, before school as a paperboy and after school stacking shelves in a grocery store. In the second week of the 11th grade, he dropped out of high school upon the realization that during the previous summer, he had made more money than his teacher made in a year. At this point, he went to work and learned the art of making money from his mentor, Louie Berman of Pasadena, and at 19 opened his first business, a pawn shop in Los Angeles. By 22, Stanley was buying and selling antiques, silver bars, brass bars and other haberdashery, traveling back and forth from Europe.

Southern California is also where he was introduced to Doreen Anne, the one and only woman he would fall in love with and remain married to for 51 years. To seal that deal, he wooed her on their first date in Las Vegas to see Elvis Presley. Their love and life spanned over five decades and survived eight children and the loss of daughter Kerry, and the trials that come with a large family and an ambition to build a legacy until Doreen passed away in September of 2023. Stanley and Doreen left Southern California to raise their family and seek opportunities in the Gold Country in 1972. Stanley and Doreen worked to raise their children, build businesses and managed to see the world. To seek education and opportunity for their children, they moved to Sacramento in 1986. Although he moved, his commitment to Amador County did not waiver as he continued to flourish as a pillar of the Amador County community with his philanthropy and commercial business endeavors.

This impressive man lived as an antique dealer, silver bar trader, motorcycle and power products dealer, restaurateur, hotelier, investor of a gold mine, Buffalo Brewing Company investor, venture capitalist, bank investor, pottery factory owner and succulent farmer, Cornish Inn owner, art and jewelry merchant, commercial real estate investor and developer, pawnbroker, sports team owner, convenience store owner, world traveler, beach home owner, philatelist and Americana documents trader and business consultant, generous to a fault, philanthropist, and most importantly, a family man. Stanley was a Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International, sitting on the Boards of Amador County Foundation and the California Loan and Secondhand Dealers Association, as well as countless others.

Until very late in life, he suffered no fools and was a brilliant human with an incomparable humor despite the hard row his life had been. His final words were of his wife Doreen and his children, of whom he was so proud, as proof that his proudest achievement was that of a family man.

Stanley is mourned by his sister Vera and her husband Wayne; his children Kelly, Pamela, Stanley the 3rd, Kristine, Teresa and Daniel; his grandchildren Meagan, Zachary, Audrey, Lauren, Lillian, Luka, London, Sebastian, Natalia and Scarlett; his extended in-law family members Deborah, Jason, Jorge, Kerry, Nancy, Emerson and Carley; and countless more whose lives he impacted.

Since the passing of dear friends, and his wife, the Stanley of late had changed a bit from how he should and would want to be remembered. If you were lucky enough to have met the real “Trader Stan, the working man’s friend,” you would remember him, like him or not, and if blessed enough to truly know him, you loved him dearly.

He now has a peace that the last few years did not possess for him, surrounded by his wife Doreen, his decades-long business partner Michael Spinetti, his friends and confidants Robert Mastagni and Robert Shirley, and his many cherished loved ones who had gone before him.

Stanley will be buried with his wife Doreen. A private funeral and memorial will follow in the coming weeks for family and friends.