City of Oaks Funeral Home & Cremation
Obituary
Christopher William Stallman
Cary, North Carolina
Age 52.
Died 10/24/2023.
Chris was born in Maryland on August 17, 1971 to loving parents Donald and Elizabeth (Lu) Stallman. Together with his sister Heather Stallman Forkey, the family of four navigated Navy life, living in Vienna, VA, Subic Bay, Philippines, and Garden Grove, CA, before settling back in Northern Virginia in 1980. Chris graduated from Lake Braddock Secondary School where he played soccer, excelled academically, and formed an enduring bond with the group of men who remained his dearest friends. They were an abiding source of support, humor and love for 35+ years.
Chris met his wife Julie at the University of Virginia in 1990. They got married in September of 1994, and lived in Sacramento, CA and Apple Valley, MN before settling in Cary, NC in 1998, where they spent the next 25 years building a beautiful life together. Chris was a devoted father to his son Ryan and daughter Kelsey, whom he loved patiently and fiercely. He always put his family’s needs ahead of his own, especially over the past few years.
Chris graduated with honors from the University of Virginia in 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems. He worked as a Management Consultant for Price Waterhouse Coopers and IBM before making a move to Cisco Systems in 2006. Chris worked in multiple IT roles in his early years at Cisco before accepting a position in Human Resources and working his way up to Director, Workforce Data and Analytics. It’s in that organization where he formed the most fulfilling working relationships and personal friendships of his career. Chris’s colleagues at Cisco supported him endlessly through his battle with cancer, and he counted many of them among his closest friends.
In his free time Chris was an avid runner and athlete. He played several sports as a young kid, but focused on soccer in his teens. Chris was a starting player on Lake Braddock High School’s 1988 and 1989 State Championship Soccer teams. His club team, the Force, won the Virginia State titles at the U-14, U-16 and U-19 levels. The U-19 team went on to win the East Coast Championship and advanced as far as the National semi-finals in 1989.
In adulthood, Chris’s love of running turned into a full-fledged passion; in his 30’s and 40’s Chris ran seven full marathons, two ultra-marathons (a 50K and 50 mile race), two ½ Ironman races and two full Ironman races, the second of which he raced in after his initial cancer diagnosis.
Chris’s other favorite past time was fishing, a love he shared with his father Don. Chris grew up fishing the Chesapeake Bay, Shenandoah River, Potomac River and Burke Lake with family and friends. In adulthood he spent many early mornings fishing locally in a neighborhood pond, and went on countless fishing trips with his dad on the Albemarle Sound in search of striper, speckled trout, red fish, flounder and white perch. Chris’s most memorable and storied fishing trip was 10 days in Kodiak, Alaska in 2009 with his dad and brother-in-law Joe, fishing for salmon and halibut.
Friends and family will remember Chris as quiet, funny, sarcastic and loyal. He never failed to offer a helping hand, even during his treatments when he wasn’t feeling his best. He was known to quote old episodes of Saturday Night Live and his favorite movies almost daily. He still drove the 1993 Toyota 4-Runner that he bought the summer after he graduated from college, and wouldn’t consider of getting a new car as long as it was running. It’s still running.
Chris is survived by his wife Julie, son Ryan, daughter Kelsey, parents Don and Lu, sister Heather, nephew Carson Forkey, niece Reagan Forkey and brother-in-law Joe Forkey. He is also survived by his mother-in-law Carol Thompson, sister-in-law Laurie Storch, brother-in-law Eric Storch and their children Jake and Megan, as well as sister-in-law Jill Voekler, brother-in-law Tom Voekler and their children Lily, Sam and Brooke.
In lieu of flowers, the family respectfully asks for donations to be made to The V Foundation. A private memorial service for immediate family was held on October 27th. A Celebration of Life, open to all, is being planned for after the holiday season.
For additional information or for service details, please reach out to the family directly.
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City of Oaks Cremation and Funeral Home is a full-service funeral home in Raleigh, serving all of North Carolina and beyond. We provide an alternative to costly funeral homes and every day we help families in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and all over North Carolina make simple, affordable funeral arrangements.
Simply having to reach out to a funeral home can feel overwhelming. Our goal is to simplify the entire funeral home experience and make the process as easy as possible. We hope to eliminate any unnecessary surprises by publishing our total cost and the services we provide directly on our website. All of our obituaries are provided free of charge as a way to help families celebrate and commemorate the lives of their loved ones.
Our Promise
Apples to Apples
Just like all other licensed funeral homes in North Carolina, City of Oaks Cremation, LLC is regulated by the NC Board of Funeral Service.
The same laws that apply to the big corporate funeral homes also apply to the modest independently owned firms like ours. All crematories in North Carolina, regardless of who owns them, are inspected annually by the state and must adhere to the same rules and laws.
Genuine Care
We're committed to providing families within our community unsurpassed service before, during and after the time of loss.
Our staff will provide clear communication to your family through each step as we move forward from the original phone call notifying us of a death to the time we deliver the urn back to your family. We will treat your family with the utmost respect, as we honor the wishes of your loved one.
We promise to make this process affordable and as endurable as possible.
State Wide
Our Funeral Home is located in Wake County NC; however, we provide our services to families throughout the entire State.
Unlike other funeral homes, we don't charge an additional mileage fee. Regardless of what county you live in, we can help your family with making simple, affordable funeral arrangements. From Asheville to Wilmington, we're proud to help families statewide.
Our Services
$1196.75
Nobody likes surprise costs added in at the last minute. We guarantee you will not find any hidden charges here. We include everything you need for a simple or direct cremation. Simple, affordable and reliable. We have not changed the cost of our direct cremation service since we opened City of Oaks in 2012.
$2875.66
We offer the option of choosing how you receive your loved ones remains. Selecting our Direct Cremation with Solidified Remains option is a beautiful way to transform cremated remains into 40-60 “stones” that you can hold.
$1917.84
City of Oaks Funeral Home and Cremation provides an affordable cremation option with onsite visitation. Nobody likes surprise costs added in at the last minute. We guarantee you will not find any hidden charges here. Simple, affordable and reliable.
$2497.50
An immediate burial has the same end result as a traditional burial; however, we have eliminated the extra (sometimes unnecessary) services prior to getting to the cemetery. Not everyone wants an open casket for viewing or a limousine for the family. Despite the term immediate, we can move as fast as you need or as slow as you like. This option simply allows you to save money by eliminating some of the fancy extras at the funeral home.
$6081.48
We offer the same traditional funeral services as the big corporately owned funeral homes in the area; however, we cost about half the amount. You might consider a traditional funeral service if your family is looking for an open casket visitation, a traditional church service or a funeral service in the funeral home's chapel. A traditional funeral service can be altered to fit the needs of your family.
$3033.75
This establishment is one of a select number of funeral homes who meet the criteria for providing green funeral service by the Green Burial Council; a tax-exempt, nonprofit organization working to encourage environmentally sustainability in the field of funeral service. Our Green options allow for a funeral to take place without the use of toxic and non-biodegradable materials/chemicals.
$2640.59
As an alternative to traditional cremation, City of Oaks Funeral Home also offers Aquamation. The Aquamation process, often referred to as alkaline hydrolysis, uses a solution of water and potassium hydroxide to facilitate natural decomposition.