“We graduated our first class in 1966. Back then, we only had an MSW program,” Dean Stewart recalled. “I always wanted to be a student-oriented dean. I interviewed every student before they were admitted to the program. Also, I came in at a good time when we had a budget to accomplish many of the goals we had set for the school,” said Stewart.
Although Stewart is credited with founding the School of Social Work, he is very quick to admit that he had great help from his associate deans during his tenure. Associate Deans under Stewart included Paul Deutchberger, Richard Anderson, Myrtle Rue, Kay Bigham and Pauline Lyde.
“We had some great intellectual leaders over the years,” reported Stewart. “
Dean Stewart is also proud of the faculty he assembled, stating that he was fortunate to hire bright, talented individuals, including our current dean, Dr. Maurice Daniels.
While Dean Stewart remembers the beginning days of the School of Social Work fondly, he humorously admitted that some things have changed around campus.
“First of all, there is no smoking on campus now!” Stewart wistfully remembered as he packed his pipe with rich, dark tobacco. Retrieving a lighter from his shirt pocket, he lit his pipe. As the sweet smell of pipe tobacco began to waft through the air, Stewart recalled, “Back then, I would sit in our conference room, have meetings all day and just process all the information while I smoked my pipe. Now, you can’t smoke in the building anymore,” added Stewart. “So now,” he jokingly exclaimed, “I don’t make too many trips back to campus.”
According to Stewart, there are countless good memories at the School of Social Work. Unfortunately, he was present for some of the darker days in our country’s history.
“I was actually hired as dean of the new School of Social Work on the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated,” remembers Stewart. “I can also remember being in a faculty meeting the morning Martin Luther King was assassinated. We had to break the meeting up because everyone was so torn up,” Stewart said.
Today, Dean Stewart and his wife Joann spend most of their time running Attic Treasures, their antique store in downtown Watkinsville, GA. Dean Stewart has always been a collector and gets his items from a variety of sources including auctions and estate sales. Attic Treasures has an array of unique items such as Civil War-era firearms, ancient skeletons, dinosaur eggs, slave trade record, World War I & II uniforms and much more.
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