Anthony Stone's Funeral Set for Friday

UPDATE: (8/17/11) Funeral services for Anthony Stone have been arranged for Friday, Aug. 19, at the New Hope Baptist Church of East Orange, 136 Norman St.  The viewing is from 10 a.m. until noon, the funeral begins at noon.

The news of Anthony Stone's death travelled quickly; but to those who knew him, the details came as a shock. 

Friends in Montclair said it was difficult to believe that 26-year-old in Providence, RI Wednesday and, that according to an article in the Providence Journal, it had happened while he was released on bail on charges for drug-dealing.

Those who spoke about Stone remember him from Montclair High School and knew that he attended Johnson & Wales University in Providence directly thereafter, but many say they'd lost touch with him in recent years.

“We got the news on Wednesday,” said Moses Massena, who graduated with Stone from Montclair High School in 2003.  “We were all shocked about everything.”

Massena grew up playing baseball with Stone.  The two played Little League together, both as pitchers.  Massena described them as having a friendly rivalry through the years, always jockeying for position.  They both played Varsity Baseball for Montclair High and “hung out together after games.”

“When the reports came out, it felt like our whole graduating class knew instantly what had happened.  It wasn’t like it was just the baseball kids or the football kids [Stone also played football for MHS].  We were all talking to everyone about it and everyone said the same thing: That really happened?  That doesn’t sound like him,” said Massena, who is a reasercher for the Major League Baseball Network and currently serves on the board of the Montclair Baseball and Softball Club.

Chris Swenson, Founder and Interim President of the Montclair ball club, agreed, “Anthony was a nice kid.  He always had a big smile on his face. He was very popular, had a lot of friends.  He was very proud of going to college – maybe even played ball there, I’m not sure.  Lots of folks in town are very sad to hear this news.”

“He was a real community kid,” said Garland Thorton, Montclair Township Activities Coordinator.  “He was a great kid.  He came up through the Montclair School system.  Never had any enemies.  One thing he really liked was baseball.”

Thorton coached Stone over the years and described him as a perpetually happy kid,  “He was a personable kid who loved life."  During his school years, Stone worked for the Montclair Recreation Department as a Little League umpire, a manager at the pools, and at Clary Anderson Arena as a skate guard and at the skate shop.  “He was part of the ROTC Junior Training when he was in high school, as well as some other community groups.”

Stone worked for Thornton as an umpire in Montclair on college breaks, holidays and summers. “We had one of those relationships that picked up where we left off."  Thorton echoed the sentiments of many, who said they find it hard to believe he'd gotten himself in trouble with the law, “I don’t know what was going on with him in this last year. I was shocked to hear about his circumstances.  He was nowhere near that type of kid.  I don’t even know if he drank.”

“The circumstances of his death were in such contradiction to the way he lived his life,” said Henry de Koninck, who also graduated with Stone in ‘03.  Stone and de Koninck were on the pitching staff of Montclair High form 2001 to 2003, along with Messena and Ben Marshall.  “He was a funny guy, would always go out of his way to help his friends. And he was a great player.  He taught me how to throw a curve ball.”

Massena also had a lot of respect for Stone’s game, “He was always a little cocky when it came to sports.  He was really confident.  His attitude always made me a better player.”

De Konink learned of Stone’s death, as most did, through Facebook.  “The incident happened in the afternoon and by the evening it seemed like everyone knew about it."  He described his relationship with Stone as “fairly close” although the two hadn’t been in touch much in the past two years.

“It saddens me that some people have been qualifying the tragedy of his death, saying how could he have gotten mixed up in that stuff, as if that somehow makes him responsible for what happened,” said de Konink.  “What someone gets into in life shouldn’t ever turn out like this.”

Massena summed up the sentiments of most:  “He died too soon for such a happy guy.”