Pate, Willard

English

Furman University

Furman MagazineVolume 44Issue 1 Spring 2001 Article 164-1-2001James T. Stewart, 1923-2001Willard PateFurman UniversityFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/furman-magazineThis Article is made available online by Journals, part of the Furman University Scholar Exchange (FUSE). It has been accepted for inclusion in FurmanMagazine by an authorized FUSE administrator. For terms of use, please refer to the FUSE Institutional Repository Guidelines. For more information,please contact scholarexchange@furman.edu.Recommended CitationPate, Willard (2001) "James T. Stewart, 1923-2001," Furman Magazine: Vol. 44 : Iss. 1 , Article 16.Available at: https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/furman-magazine/vol44/iss1/16Furman reports James T. Stewart, 1 923-200 1 When news of Jim Stewart's death on February 2 reached the members of the English department, we were assembled to interview a candidate for a teaching position. The candidate was giving a f01mal presentation and thus merited our attention. But when we went to lunch later, our focus shifted to stories about Jim. "Do you remember," someone asked, "when he had gout and used his walking cane to propel himself up and down the hall on his roll ing desk chair?" Those of us who had been around Furman for at least 20 years remembered. I ,  for one, could still see him rolling along through a throng of students as they changed classes, looking at me with that trademark grin on his face - that expression that seemed to say, "Yes, I know. I ' m  total ly aware that I ' m  being eccentric." The two most enduring stories about Jim predated any of us. In fact, when I came to Furman in the fal l of 1 964 they were already part of his legend. For all I know they may have been apocryphal . As he used to say, "Pate, don't  believe everything you hear." But sitting at lunch that day, we told the stories as if they were true: "When he played recordings of the Canterbury Tales to his Chaucer class, he turned the volume down so students couldn 't  hear the bawdy parts of 'The Mil ler's Tale."'  "One day in  the classroom he leaned so far back in  h is  chair that he toppled over. For a few seconds, all was silent. Then his face appeared just above the back edge of the desk as he announced, 'Claaaaaasssssssss dissssssmisssssssed. "' It  was appropriate, I think, that we remembered, celebrated and mourned Jim Stewart through stories about him. He was, after all, one of the last great eccentrics to roll down the halls of Furman. Legends about him will probably l ive as long as Furman l ives. But perhaps more important, Jim's legendary abil ity to tel l  stories made him bri l l iant in the classroom. His major field was Renaissance l iterature, and l ike the metaphysical poets about whom he taught, he could yoke disparate elements together. Many a student learned something about Milton from Jim's stories about trains, or something about composition from his stories about baseball. Certainly his eccentricity contributed to his being a master teacher. How better to get a student to read "The Mil ler's Tale" than to suggest that parts of it are unfit for ears so young? Former students also tel l  other types of stories about him. Susan Tibbetts Ragan '75 ,  for example, had one to tel l  when she came to her 25th reunion last fal l .  As a first-term freshman in J im's composition class, Susan had mentioned that her boyti·iend was a student at Clemson. In the intervening years, they had no further conversations about the boyfriend or about Clemson. Then, just before her graduation, Jim greeted her with, "Tibbetts, how is that boyfriend of yours over at Clemson?" "I was absolutely amazed that he remembered something I had told him almost four years earlier," said Susan. But that was his way with students. Freshman conferences about comma splices or quotation marks became less dreadful because Jim was genuinely interested in hearing about boyfriends or batting averages.  Students were neither extensions of his own ego nor pawns to be awed by Jim Stewart taught at Furman from 1955 to 1992. his power. They were all individuals who had their own stories to tel l .  And he remembered those stories for years. That is why, I think, even after his retirement in 1 992, one of the first questions com­ing from so many alumni returning for Homecoming gatherings was, "How is Dr. Stewart?" During his years at Furman, Jim was chair of the faculty for a term, chair of the English department for several terms, and director of the Institutional Self-Study from 1 985-87. Those were among his many important contributions to the l ife of the university. His greatest contributions, though, were to the l ives of his students. After he received the Alester G. Furman, Jr., and Janie Earle Furman Award for Meritorious Teaching in 1 978,  he said to me, "Pate, I don 't deserve it ." But he did. - Willard Pate Professor of English Miller first speaker in Walters Lecture Series Eugene F. Mi l ler, who taught political science at Furman from 1 963 through 1 967 and is now a professor at the University of Georgia, was the inaugural speaker in the Ernest J. Walters, Jr., Lecture Series in Political Thought April 2. His topic was "Politics in  the Age of Technology: Are the Classics Relevant Today?" The lectureship honors Walters, who taught political science at Furman for 27 years before his retirement in 1 989. An expert on political phi losophy, Walters was known for his dedication to students, love for h is discipl ine and scrupulous preparation for class. He received the Alester G. Furman, Jr., and Janie Earle Furman Award for Meritorious Teaching in 1 971 and served as department chair from 1 979-84. He died in 1 997. The lecture series was established by Walters' students, family and friends and sponsored by the Department of Political Science and the Richard W. Ri ley Institute of Government, Politics and Public Leadership. Mi l ler, who has written extensively on modern, contemporary and American political philosophy, was a close friend of Walters and his wife, Terry, and provided the initial impetus for the Ernest J. Walters Memorial Endowment. 

James T. Stewart, 1923-2001

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James T. Stewart, 1923-2001

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