Dr. Stainforth published numerous papers during half a century of productivity between the late nineteen-thirties and the eighties, mostly concerned with foraminiferal, stratigraphic and micropaleontologic research in South America and Trinidad. He was deeply interested in the uses of the ranges of Tertiary planktonic foraminifera to define stratigraphic zones. His experience was drawn from petroleum exploration.

He incidentally co-authored a casual pamphlet on the rules of dice and explained the derivation of pi in a letter to grandchildren.