Robert B. Stewart

Robert B. Stewart died on August 23, having finally managed to sate a seemingly inexhaustible appetite for life. He was 89 years old.

Known to his friends as Bob, he was born in Chicago, Illinois on November 15, 1931 to attorney Jack Clyde Stewart and Helen Lucile Stewart (née Shumard), a schoolteacher. His early interest in writing took him to the School of Journalism at the University of Kansas, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Daily Kansan.

He joined the Navy as an officer after graduation. Service was important to the Stewart clan, with Bobs younger brother, Tom, joining the Army, and his older brother, John, serving in the Air Force.

Bob wed Mary C. Lathrop in Kansas City on September 25, 1954 and immediately drove his new bride to Pensacola, FL, where he was stationed on the USS Monterey. They were then transferred to Norfolk, VA, where their first two children were born.

A job in public relations at Procter & Gamble prompted a move to Cincinnati, where Bob and Mary settled permanently in 1957. Five more children followed over the course of seven years. Bob worked for P&G for the next 34 years, the final decade of which he directed state government relations for the western United States. In 1973, he was elected president of the Cincinnati chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.

Bob sustained a remarkable number of hobbies while raising seven children and working full-time for P&G: He was a committed skier, golfer, and tennis player. His undying zeal for Kansas Jayhawks basketball was matched only by his love of classical music. The soundtrack of his home and automobile was supplied by WGUC (from 1976-78, he served as the chairman of that radio stations community board).

Having converted to Catholicism at the urging of his wife, he became a dedicated parishioner at Church of the Nativity in Pleasant Ridge, where he and Mary regularly participated in church events and fundraisers.

He volunteered his talent for PR to the Hamilton County Board of Developmental Disabilities and to the local Democratic Club, a true labor of love in Republican Cincinnati.

Soon after retiring from P&G, Bob pursued his own career in politics: He was elected to the Amberley Village Council in 1993, and promoted to mayor in 2001.

Bobs multitudinous passions live on through his progeny, who count among their number writers, PR professionals, politicians, musicians, and a great number of basketball enthusiasts. He is survived by six children (David Stewart, Michael Stewart, JC Stewart, Maureen Walsh, Patricia Ashleman, and Thomas Stewart), 12 grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.

His brother John died in 2001. Brother Tom died earlier this year. Bobs second son, Robert F. Stewart, died in 2013. A theatrically rebellious namesake, he was the only one of Bobs children to follow his footsteps into the Navy, proving that children may not obey, but children will listen.

Most devastating was the loss of his beloved wife, Mary, on August 22, 2020. Bob followed her to the hereafter exactly one year and a day later, leaving behind a legacy of service and civic values that will survive into the next several generations.

Visitation will be at Church of the Nativity 5935 Pandora Ave Cincinnati Ohio 45213 at 9am on Friday, September 10, with a mass to follow at 10am.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to The Church of the Nativity of Our Lord 5935 Pandora Ave Cincinnati, Ohio 45213