It was 2:30 a.m. on June 18, 1972, when\nthe resounding ring of the telephone woke\nNancy and John Stewart \u201957.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen you get a call like that in the\nmiddle of the night, your first thought is\nsomething terrible has happened,\u201d John\ntold WBIR in 2017. \u201cSomething terrible did\nhappen, but we didn\u2019t realize how serious it\nwas at the time.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John\u2019s secretary was on the line, relaying information from the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police: Five burglars were found in John\u2019s office at Watergate. As the communications director for the Democratic National Committee, John was one of the first to be notified of the break- in that led to one of the biggest political scandals in U.S. history. But being a witness to history isn\u2019t the only accomplishment for which John, who died on Sept. 29, 2021, at age 86, will be remembered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a top aide for Sen. Hubert Humphrey (pictured above [right], who later became vice president under Lyndon B. Johnson), John helped organize the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, \u201cone of the most significant legislative achievements in American history,\u201d according to senate.gov. Additionally, John often spoke to the press about the bill, and he took appointments with the public for Humphrey. Once, an impassioned woman came into his office rallying for a section on the chopping block \u2014 about discrimination based on sex \u2014 to be left in the document. Afterward, John gave Humphrey some sage advice: \u201cSenator, do not have any thoughts about removing Judge Smith\u2019s sex amendment from the bill. If you do, you will encounter an enraged Betty Friedan. Believe me, senator, you do not want that to happen. Trust me on this one.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He assisted Humphrey for several more years, and then in 1980, moved to Knoxville, Tenn., where he\u2019d stay until the end of his life. In addition to working for the Tennessee Valley Authority, the largest public utility in the country, John was an active part of the Knoxville community.
In retirement, he continued his work for social good, creating a medical care fund for disaster relief workers following a coal ash spill at a nearby fossil plant. He also served as a consultant for NASA and helped found the Georgian Institute of Public Administration following the fall of the Soviet Union. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Through it all, John was a loyal Colgate\nson \u2014 in many TV interviews about the\nWatergate scandal, he was seen wearing\nhis quintessential maroon cap, showing the\nworld his pride in alma mater. As a student,\nhe was editor of the Maroon <\/em>and involved in\nMaroon Key, the Take Two Film Committee,\nKonosioni, student government, and indoor\ntrack. He was a member of the Alpha Tau\nOmega fraternity. After Colgate, John used\nhis political science degree (later earning\nhis PhD) to create change in an evolving\ncountry. A fervent class editor, he kept the\nmen of 1957 up to date on all the latest\nhappenings with dedication and care. \u201cHe\nwas a lively guy, with many, many interests,\u201d\nNancy told the News Sentinel<\/em>.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n John is survived by Nancy, the woman at his side as he received the call that would change his life as well as life\u2019s other obstacles and joys. She, along with son Mike and daughter Cara, were also at his side as he passed away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Further reading: John Stewart chronicled his life in politics in One Last Chance: The Democratic Party, 1974\u201376 <\/em>(Praeger Publishers, 1974); Witness to the Promised Land <\/em>(Seven Locks Press, 2005); and When Democracy Worked: Reflections on the Passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 <\/em>(New York Law School Law Review, 2015). <\/strong> A tribute to the remarkable life of John Stewart \u201957, who played an important role in U.S. politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1222,"featured_media":8723,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[354,296,295,95],"coauthors":[168],"class_list":["post-8322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alumni-spotlights","category-alumni-updates","tag-alumni","tag-government","tag-law","tag-politics"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/palXSH-2ae","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2022\/02\/Sidelines.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1222"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8322"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8730,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8322\/revisions\/8730"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8322"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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