Norwich — He probably would start his own obituary with "Once upon a time, there was a Norwich man who left his mark on so many Norwich institutions that he became one."

William B. Stanley, 80, author, stockbroker, politician and visionary and hometown cheerleader, died Sunday at Hartford Hospital.

A fixture in the worlds of The William W. Backus Hospital, St. Jude's Common elderly housing, Norwich Free Academy, the Norwich Historical Society, which he founded, and the Diocese of Norwich, Mr. Stanley's accomplishments are not just numerous, but in some cases, incredible.

He gained respect for Benedict Arnold.

He raised doubts that George Washington was our first president.

He proposed a massive jetport development that would have swallowed up several rural communities in eastern Connecticut and neighboring Rhode Island.

And when a governor asked for the political heartbeat of Norwich, he was directed to Mr. Stanley, even though he had been retired from politics for 20 years.

"We've lost a piece of Norwich history," Mayor Peter Nystrom said. "It's a real, tremendous loss to the city."

The City Council will recognize Mr. Stanley today during its 7:30 p.m. meeting.

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal called Mr. Stanley "a presence in my life for more than three decades" who was a candid confidant.

"He was a mentor and friend and buddy when I needed solid and sound advice without fear or favor," Blumenthal said.

Longtime friend and fellow history buff Denison Gibbs recalled numerous lunches or dinners with Mr. Stanley when strangers would approach and thank Mr. Stanley for making local history come alive.

"He wanted to bring Norwich's past to folks for people to understand," Gibbs said. "Bill was the spirit of Norwich. That spirit will stay. He forged a bond in the community, a pride in the community, and that will stay."

Mr. Stanley is survived by his wife, Margaret Culotta Stanley, 77, whom he cared for at home through her advanced Alzheimer's disease, his son William A. Stanley, and daughters Carol Little and Mary Stanley, their spouses and three grandchildren.

Hundreds of columns

Mr. Stanley leaves for posterity hundreds of his signature "Once Upon a Time" newspaper columns. He published eight books, five of them collections of his columns, and an audio book for the Backus Hospital Auxiliary.

In his largest book, he had 70 writers from Norwich and surrounding towns chronicle the area's history.

His final book was a gift to Norwich schoolchildren. The slim, hardcover with black-and-white photos compiles the texts from the historic plaques Mr. Stanley helped establish at noteworthy city sites. In November 2009, he got the Norwich Board of Education to approve a local history curriculum and donated 5,000 books to the school system.

In response, students sent Mr. Stanley hundreds of colorful, hand written and drawn "thank you" cards that moved him to tears.

Mr. Stanley didn't call himself a historian, but a storyteller or nostalgist.

Asked by a New York Times reporter in 1998 why he wrote a weekly column and published books only to give the money away to local organizations, Mr. Stanley admitted the task sometimes was a chore.

"Not that I want for ideas, the blarney just flows," he said.

A stereotypical political insider, Mr. Stanley didn't always win his battles - strong mayoral government in Norwich, the jetport and a multimillion-dollar technology center at the former Masonic Temple never materialized. Some of his political battles raged for decades and Mr. Stanley became estranged from some fellow Democrats.

A conservative Democrat, Mr. Stanley felt the party made a mistake embracing many liberal social issues, such as pro-abortion and over zealous environmental regulations.

By far Mr. Stanley's most controversial endeavor was the jetport - the "Industrial City," a massive international air cargo airport surrounded by industries and thousands of acres of buffer land.

Mr. Stanley first proposed the project in the late 1960s, bolstered by labor unions and aviation advocates. It became the center of a fierce political and environmental battle that eventually ended his political career.

"Opponents exploited the whole jetport issue," his son William A. Stanley said. "Here was this guy running at the height of the whole environmental movement and was advocating this massive industrial jetport complex in northeast Connecticut. His opponents had a field day with that."

Mr. Stanley served two state Senate terms beginning in 1966. At the end of his second term, he ran unsuccessfully for Congress in the 2nd District. He then lost a bid for his old state Senate seat.

That ended Mr. Stanley's "competitive political career," as his son put it, but the elder Stanley remained active in every corner of Norwich politics and some state arenas.

Mr. Stanley revived the $3 billion jetport idea in the recession of the early 1990s and it again gained quick support and loud opposition until funding and enthusiasm dried up. But it remained a dream for Mr. Stanley, who as recently as last fall remarked: "It would have worked."

A Norwich Free Academy graduate, Mr. Stanley attended the New York School of Modern Photography and joined the U.S. Marine Corps with his brother, Jim. Mr. Stanley became a combat photographer and later a newspaper photographer for the Norwich Bulletin. In 1954 he shot exclusive photos of a burning Air France airliner that crashed in Preston.

He and his brother served as the morning wake-up team on radio station WICH before Bill became a stockbroker in the late 1950s.

Benedict Arnold advocate

Mr. Stanley made Benedict Arnold come to life for people in the infamous general's hometown.

As Mr. Stanley told the story over and over, he became fascinated with Arnold in high school when researching the heroes of the American Revolution. Mr. Stanley wrote a paper saying Arnold won three key battles early in the war, keeping the Revolution alive.

The teacher told Mr. Stanley to "take a few days off" allegedly for making a mockery of his history class.

In 1984, Mr. Stanley took the witness stand as Arnold himself in a mock treason trial at NFA. He donned the lavish attire of the spendthrift general numerous times to tell Arnold's story.

Mr. Stanley placed one of his historic plaques marking landmark sites at Arnold's 1741 birthplace at the corner of Washington Street and Arnold Place - a spot Mr. Stanley loved as it names the generals whose careers crossed in so many ways.

In 2004, Mr. Stanley secured a proper gravestone for Arnold's burial site in London. He called it "great closure" when he attended the gravestone ceremony amid so many dignitaries.

"We weren't trying to say Arnold was innocent," Mr. Stanley said. "He was a traitor. But he also fought for his country and had a life of greatness and he deserved to be memorialized."

Mr. Stanley then championed an effort to gain national recognition for the oft-overlooked Norwich statesman Samuel Huntington.

Huntington was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and president of the Continental Congress during the war.

Yet by the turn of the 21st century, the tombs of Huntington and his wife, Martha, lay in disrepair, vandalized and nearly collapsed. This was the grave of the country's "president" when the newly formed states passed the Articles of Confederation to become "The United States in Congress Assembled."

In 2003, Mr. Stanley raised $100,000 and media attention to restore the tombs.

"If we as the historical society noticed the Huntington tomb in a decrepit condition and said 'this is horrible, we need to do something,' it would have taken years for us to raise $100,000," said William Champagne, Mr. Stanley's successor as president of the Norwich Historical Society. "But Bill Stanley snapped his fingers, made a few phone calls and got it done."

Mr. Stanley once again hit the international media circuit, arguing that Huntington should be considered the first president of the United States.

Failing to get a federally sanctioned presidential birthday wreath-laying ceremony - as is done for all deceased presidents, Mr. Stanley organized ceremonies each year himself, with state, federal and local dignitaries presiding.

In 2007, Mr. Stanley started a new effort to build a presidential library in Norwich to salute the pre-Washington presidents. He formed the new Forgotten Founders Committee and obtained $50,000 in 2008 from the Sachem Fund - a fund created by Norwich and the Mohegan Tribe.

As his health faltered, Mr. Stanley realized in February he would have to leave the effort to a future generation. He turned to those children who had sent him all those thank-you cards.

"I'm hoping some of these kids get hooked on history, because what I'm going to start, I'm not going to be able to finish," Mr. Stanley said of the Forgotten Founders effort. "But I'm going to start it."