Jack Meyer Stuart

1937 - 2022

April 24, 1937 - January 11, 2022 Jack Meyer Stuart passed away in hospice after receiving words of love from family and many friends around the country. A proud graduate of Erasmus High School in Brooklyn, New York, Jack was the first in his immediate family to go to college, attending MIT for a semester before transferring to Brooklyn College, where he was the founder and president of the school's Eugene V. Debs Society. Jack taught at Hunter College and went on to receive his PhD from Columbia with a focus on labor history, Marxism, and political movements. At Brooklyn College, Jack had the privilege of working with John Hope Franklin, which further shaped Jack's commitment to civil rights, activism, and equality and his core belief in the power of individuals acting together to effect meaningful positive change. Jack was actively involved with the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and he worked with and recruited others to advance the socialist and other movements of the time, including Rachelle Horowitz, Tom Khan, Sandra Feldman, Gavin MacFadyen, and others. Jack joined the faculty of California State University, Long Beach in 1967, was elected Dean of the History Department in 1976, and shortly thereafter became the President of the Academic Senate, where he worked to diffuse tensions and bridge gaps between the administration and the faculty. Jack was an activist for state employees' collective bargaining rights, and after representing a member of the CSULB faculty in a dispute over a trip to China that implicated academic freedom, he became a lawyer and worked as a prosecutor at the L.A. District Attorney's office and for L.A.-area municipalities while still teaching. After moving to Minnesota in 1992 to support his ex-wife's appointment at St. Cloud State, Jack taught classes at local universities and colleges around the Twin Cities, and later taught film classes through Osher Lifelong Learning. Jack considered noted Minnesota historian and political scholar, Hy Berman, among his dearest friends in Minneapolis. Jack worked as the administrator for the Twin Cities chapter of PFLAG and helped provide legal aid for the poor. Jack was a proud "card carrying" Democratic Socialist, and he was never one to shy away from a good protest or a political discussion. He loved going to and talking about the theater, classical music, the opera, and ballet, but he also loved the Rolling Stones and Creedence Clearwater Revival. He could eat more than his weight in Chinese or Greek food, and until his medical condition limited his mobility, he loved to travel and visit his many friends around the world. Jack is survived by his beloved partner, Sylvia Elrod, and her family, Jennifer, Siena, and Christian. He is also survived by his sons, Seth Weston-Stuart and Larry Stuart, his daughter-in-law Christine Parker Stuart, and his grand-daughter Isabel Stuart. A memorial service celebrating Jack's life will be held at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, August 7, 2022, at Temple Israel, 2323 Fremont Ave. S, Minneapolis, MN 55405.