Richard J. "Dick" Stewart

While musing about roads not taken, connections lost and such, as one is wont to do late in life, an internet search brought me to this page and the sad news of Richard Stewart's passing. Reading the many warm remembrances of him gave me a glimpse of his life and loves. My condolences go out to his children I never met and to dear Mary Ann.

Dick Stewart was only 3 years older than me, and hence could have been an older brother. So I was shocked this week to belatedly learn that he had died (since returning to Canada, and the turbulent oil industry, in 1972, I have been mostly out of touch with the UW Community). His premature death is a sad loss to his family, friends and the geoscience community!

In the Autumn of 1970 I was in the early stages of my MS research dissertation. As that project was a seismic...

Dick’s help was instrumental in the completion of my master’s degree at the University of Washington. He worked closely with me during my first summer quarter at UW to separate minerals for helium dating and taught me every step in the process of fission-track dating. Later, when the work was complete and the first draft of the thesis was written, his comments and suggestions vastly improved the final product. He worked more closely with me than any other member of my graduate committee. ...

As a UW grad student in the early 70s, Dick Stewart simply pulled me into his wonderful world of sedimentary rocks, field geology, and teaching. My memories--struggling with tephras in his lab, his sand collection (now I have one of my own), seeing him stylishly fix his hair with a Brunton compass mirror in the 101 lecture, help in field camp in California, and most of all, he signed off on my degree and launched me on toward the next one. Great guy!

I never took a class under Mr. Stewart but I did meet him once. I was looking for someone who might answer a question about an odd rock I'd had in my collection for some years. I wondered into his office and asked if he knew what it could be. He took the rock in his hands and looked closely at it for some time. He gave it back and said it was a rare formed quartz, nothing special, but indeed odd in how it formed. (Looks like white human brains.) I thanked him and left. I still have that rock...

Thanks to Dick's enthusiasm and patience, for he spent countless early hours teaching me how to count and interpret those magical fission tracks. He and I shared many stories relating to the wonders called the Olympics. I hope the "rubies" sparkle on Saturday.

Dick was one of the first people I met upon arriving on American soil over 3 years ago. I was desperate to hit the mountains, so he gave me his old 1960s mountaineering Guide to the Cascades & Olympics. I will never forget how we laughed when I returned from my first trip to Mt. St. Helens, and had found the Guide's description of the (non-existing) route, including the "beautifully symmetrical cone", to be far from the truth. (In my excitement I had failed to connect Mt. St. Helens with THE...

Dick Stewart was my host during my job interview at UW in 1980. He walked me around campus, and hosted me for dinner at his house, where I remember a warm family home; Ian and Anna were just tykes. We sat around the kitchen making pizzas. Dick made me feel welcome.
Everyone knew that Dick loved the Olympics, and he was the go-to person for advice on field sites, etc. I still use helpful and entertaining notes he wrote for me recommending this and that locality. "Slip around...