Reverend Gordon Kennedy Stewart
1921-2020
Our Dad, Gordon, died on Saturday, May
9, in the wonderful care of the
Nursing Staff at the Gables Lodge in
Amherst, Nova Scotia. His last months were graced additionally, by the
presence of three angels, Joann, Betty and Carolyne who attended him
constantly, when family could not.
He lived a long and worthy life,
beginning almost a century ago in Montreal, where he was born to
William and Mary, recent immigrants from Belfast in the North of
Ireland. He had a sister, Marie, older than Dad, who died as a High
School teacher in Montreal, at a young age. We never really knew
her.
Dad was not blessed with
Marie’s artistic skill, nor with William’s
athleticism (although he was unparalleled at his slow, methodical
breast-stroke). However, he was a scholar and intellect. We used to
joke about his penchant for wearing a toque, even to bed, as a means
of keeping the neurons warm and humming.
He was educated at Westmount High School
and thence on to McGill University. His studies were interrupted in
1942 when he shipped overseas during WWII, enlisting with the Corps of
Canadian Firefighters, stationed in Plymouth, England. He also served
in the Friends Ambulance Unit from 1944 until his return to Canada in
1946.
After returning to McGill, Dad had the
incredible good fortune to meet our Mom, Florence Trotter, a pretty
red-head and English and Classics student on scholarship from
small-town Alberta. They were made for each other – the
perfect match! They were married in August 1947.
Mom and Dad Moved to Conway, Ontario
from where Dad studied Divinity at Queens AND served a five-point
rural charge, his first United Church ministry. From there, service to
the church became Gordon’s life’s work, Florence
his constant companion.
In 1956 Gordon answered a call from the
new congregation of Northlea United church in Laval to be their first
minister. By the time we left Laval for Toronto, in 1964, there were
four children and somehow, amid the chaos, we were
nurtured.
In Toronto, Dad was the Associate
Secretary for Evangelism and Social Service at the United Church
headquarters. He traveled a lot, including to the Maritimes
– he seemed to like it here.
Gordon was always curious. He read,
read, then read some more. He digested Scientific American cover to
cover. There were walls of books in all his houses. He installed the
Encyclopaedia Britannica next to the dinner table – books
and debate were de rigor at meals.
When the family traveled, Gordon always
tried to find a bracket fungus to inscribe and memorialize the event.
He favoured hikes. He picked up rocks and told us the stories they
tell. He was an accomplished carpenter and projects bloomed at each
residence in his life’s journey. He taught us how to use
tools.
Dad attended two World Fairs –
New York in 1939 with his sister Marie and Expo in 1967 with the whole
gaggle of us in tow.
In 1971 we all headed to Sackville
(except for his eldest, our sister Moira, for whom the allures of
continuing in Toronto were too much, so she stayed there). The rest of
us tried to adjust to small-town life in the Maritimes: it was a
change from TO. Dad served for ten years at the Sackville United
Church. He still gave the best sermons in the country; thoughtful,
mysterious, never sanctimonious or threatening. He was the antithesis
of the Hellfire and brimstone preacher, thank goodness! He was a
master of the Children’s Story. They were enthralling,
usually embellished with models he had built, or fossils he had
collected. The adults often exclaimed that these stories were the most
enlightening and entertaining parts of the service.
Our house in Sackville was never dull.
We housed in sequence, and sometimes for years at a time, a stream of
locals from broken homes, or transients, hitchhiking through on the
TCH and looking for seasonal jobs, and who honed in on the manse
adjacent to the big white church at the centre of town. We knew some
by name, and they would reappear with the changing
seasons.
From Sackville, in 1981, Dad and Mom
moved to Merigomish, Nova Scotia, serving the church in a
“quaint” two-point rural charge. The children by
this point were at all points of the compass, where we remain to this
day. Our Mom, Dad’s precious “Rusty” died
there of a cancer which had stalked her for a decade.
Dad retired in 1986, moving to
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, where, true-to-form, he immediately set about
filling in at local churches in need of leadership (which begs the
question – is the term “Retired United Church
Minister” actually an oxymoron?)
In Dartmouth, as during other parts of
his life Dad was deeply involved in local Social Justice issues,
including helping with the immigration files of the Filipino seamen
caught in Halifax on the Maersk Dubai. He also organized and walked a
25 mile marathon in a project he called the “Walk of
Witness”, from Halifax to Lawrencetown, on his arthritic
ankles. He indulged his lifelong interest in rocks and minerals by
taking Geology courses at Dalhousie University.
In 1990 he married his second wife, the
former Evelyn Crook, his steady companion until the last of his days.
She was a twinkly-eyed Dartmouth girl and a retired Head Nurse and
joined Dad in retirement travels to Australia and New Zealand, Alaska
and Europe, and especially to the UK where Dad’s first
clutch of grandchildren still reside. Evelyn, of course, had to share
their apartment with Dad’s collection of minerals, rocks and
fossils, all catalogued, labeled and displayed in purpose-built
cabinets.
In his declining years, Dad was slowed
by arthritis, declining eyesight and poor hearing. And finally, his
intellect diminished as well. Both he and Evelyn moved into care. But
to the end Gordon was a man of interest, listening with attention to
world news and issues of the day, eager to learn about family, quick
to inquire about anything and everything.
He lived a long life: at age 99 and
despite never playing a shift of hockey, he ended up sharing at least
a number with Wayne Gretzky.
He is survived by his wife Evelyn who
still resides at the Gables Nursing Home in Amherst, and by his four
children. He was thankful for 11 grandchildren and two great
grandchildren.
Minister of the church. Devoted husband.
Formidable debater. Geologist and astronomer, scientist. Amazing
intellect. Man of faith.
He was man who tenaciously tried to do
the right thing.
We miss you Dad
Moira, Wendy,
Keir, Graeme.
Dad has been cremated under the care and
supervision of Jones Funeral Home, Sackville, NB (506-364-1300).
Arrangements are being made for later burial. We are grateful to Jones
Funeral Home in Sackville. In the era of Covid, no public Celebration
of Life will be held in the near future, but reminisces will be
welcomed through the Jones Funeral home website at
www.jonesfuneralhome.ca or throught the funeral home’s Facebook
page.
Donations in Dad’s memory can
be made through the Funeral Home’s website, or directly, to
The United Church of Canada Mission and Service Fund or to the Stephen
Lewis Foundation.
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Our most sincere sympathies to the family and friends of Reverend Gordon Kennedy Stewart 19212020..
Death notice for the town of: Sackville, Province: Nouveau-Brunswick