Historical Summer 2018 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
The family of Calvin B. Stuart celebrated the life of their father on Saturday, May 12th at Christ Church Cathedral. Cal and his wife Gee raised their three children, Sarah, CT, and Allison in Skinker DeBaliviere and were very active in so many aspects of life in the neighborhood.
They lived on both 6100 McPherson and 6100 Kingsbury. At the service, the Very Rev. Kathie Adams-Shepherd, Provost of Christ Church Cathedral, spoke of Cal’s being a fellow Episcopal priest, ordained in 1964 in that very cathedral and serving for seven years as priest of Ascension Episcopal Church in St. Louis.
As a neighbor in nearby Skinker-DeBaliviere Neighborhood, Cal began to serve on the Skinker DeBaliviere Community Council, which was, as Rev. Kathie said, “formed to restore the neighborhood as a safe and desirable place to live and raise children in a diverse urban environment.
As I understand it this was no small task at that time. Cal was an activist, committed to racial equity and justice, the city, just city politics and to humanity itself. Cal preached and lived what he believed… He worked with people who were in trouble of one sort or another helping to connect them to the support needed as he continued to support them through their struggles and challenges.
He would say that he was part of a community and would walk the talk- walking through the neighborhoodmeeting with police to develop a partnership in the community…. he never sought the limelight yet recognized by many for all he did to create opportunity for all and bring a community together for the good of all.
The State Legislature and Board of Alderman created a proclamation honoring his tireless work. Perhaps more important to Cal were the lives that were turned around and set on a positive path.
His daughter Sarah shared a story of sitting on the porch of their home when a fire truck pulled up in front.
A young firefighter got out and asked for Fr. Cal.
He told Cal- I’m off drugs because of you and now I’m a firefighter helping the community. Cal had connected to him as a teen and supported his recovery….” Cal Stuart was Executive Director of the Skinker DeBaliviere Community Council all throughout the tumultuous 70’s, and his daughters said that he always stressed that his and SDCC’s success was due to the “teamwork” of those who worked together to bring back the SD neighborhood.
There to honor and remember him were so many faces from those days, among them Dan Shea and Kathleen Williams; Judy Little, who worked on the historic district designation; Delores Hoefel, who worked with Betty Klinefelter to raise our kids at Grace Methodist Pre-School and later ran the food pantry for many years; Susie and Dan Feinberg, leaders in stabilizing properties; John Roach, 28th Ward Alderman during much of the 70’s; Frank Burke, a quiet leader in the Rosedale Neighborhood Assn.; Alice Stanley; the Vatchas; Marvin Nodiff; Dan and Jill McGuire; Kathy Harleman, who was co-author with Gee Stuart and Sue Tepas of the “original” neighborhood history; Marj and Brad Weir, whose tireless work in the neighborhood stretches all these nearly 50 years; and so many others who felt that Cal Stuart was the ultimate neighborhood leader, whose great laughs and late night debates were legendary. Although Cal and Gee moved away a few years ago, he kept in touch. Our condolences to his children, C.T., Sarah, and Allison, and his grandchildren.
Original photograph caption
Cal Stuart, Nancy Farmer and Dan Mc Guire.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, Summer 2018.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times2018_06.pdf, printed page(s) 6; PDF page(s) 6.
