Robert Stewart

Robert "Allen" Stewart

November 16, 1945 - March 9, 2026

Robert "Allen" Stewart was born to Peggy Oglesby and Gene Allen Stewart in Turlock, CA. When Gene returned from occupied Japan following WWII, they moved to a new home in Merced, CA where Gene worked as a Railway Express Account Manager during the day and a racing engine builder. At age 7, Allen and his mother went to live in Turlock with his maternal grandma Winnie Oglesby Bartley where he attended a one room school. The following year his mother married Mel Hood. In San Francisco he attended Sanchez Grade School and Everett Jr. High later attending and graduating in 1963 from Manteca, CA. His decades of marathon running started in San Francisco being chased home from school as the only white boy in the neighborhood. He held a variety of jobs while in high school which included a part time care detailing job which required him at 14 to get a farmer's driver's license. He built neighborhood fences, bought and sold cars, and got paid several hundred dollars for designing houses for one of his teachers. While attending and driving the college school bus to San Joaquin Delta College he started his NHRA professional drag racing career and did record production for bands later known as J. Giles, Credence Clearwater, Paul Revere, Beach Boys, Kris Kristofferson, Rita Collage, John Molenkamp and Jan and Dean. He put on area

festivals hiring bands to play while hosting car shows. Other employment included Tracy Defense Deport, McCoy Racing Wheels, and Manteca Ford Dealership parts before spending 1973-1977 in the Navy as storekeeper, photo intelligence and diplomatic work. He took photos of the Ho-Chi-Man Trail and of the last chopper to leave the Saigon Embassy in April 1975.

After Vietnam, he developed a scratch project for Earth Grains Danish Line before spending 5 years on rural 120-mile newspaper route. In the 80's and early 90's he traveled and worked at his dream job with Roy Brizio Street Rods in S. San Francisco. He enjoyed hanging out with the rich and famous while riding around in Roy's deluxe cars. After seven years when Burnout hit him after 7 years, Allen was offered a similar job at the same pay scale in Grants Pass resulting in a move early in the 90"s to the Rogue Valley. When that position evaporated, he delivered doors and cabinets for Davis Finish Products and finished his work career with Harry and David.

On July 3, 1996, he agreed to help a friend with an event where he met Lillian Kusiek who was present for the same reason. They married at Cantrell Buckley in 2002. They spent almost 24 years on their Eaton Canyon Ranch and traveling around Mexico, Fiji, DC, and western states.

Allen's first stage 4 cancer was discovered in 2010. He survived after losing over 131 pounds but lived the remainder of his life on a feeding tube due to a radiation mistake. In June 2024, a sore throat turned out to be another stage 4 cancer on the other side of his tongue. After over a year and a half on Keytruda with some more chemotherapy and radiation along with months of pneumonia and five major bleeds, he succumbed to his disease most likely caused by exposure during Vietnam to jet fuel on the Wabash Cannon Ball Ship. He was grateful for God and his wife. ". Overall, Allen felt he had lived a charmed Forest Gump Life except for the cancer which claimed his life. Towards the end he felt the happiest he had ever been. He tried to enjoy and appreciate, his last days to the best of his ability.

He is survived by his wife, Lillian Eaton Stewart and stepchildren, Sara and Benjamin (Leticia) Ward, and five step grandchildren: Tacitus, Caius, Trajan, Deacon, and Adalie, his half-sister, Cathy Stewart Martin, and cousins Bea Sousa, Bev Halliday and William Stapp.