He spent the first ten years of his life in Finland, moving back to the United States after the death of his father, and his mother's remarriage to a man in Seattle.
He studied electrical engineering at Washington State College, and in 1929 married Lily, another student from Anchorage.
In 1938, he filed for a Homestead Act claim on land near Otter Lake that was later incorporated into Fort Richardson.
[1] In December 1941, in response to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and under the advice of Colonel Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr., Stolt ordered a partial blackout of Anchorage.
Originally located at 1000 East Fourth Avenue, the business eventually moved two blocks to the south, to the corner of East Sixth Avenue and Juneau Street, to take advantage of the better location when the business became more of a mass market retailer.