Born on June 8, 1914, in the Maine town of Hinckley, he prepared for college at Morse High School in Bath and was a student at Bowdoin from 1933 to 1937. He was a management cadet with the American Water Works Company in New York City for a year and then was superintendent of the New Jersey Water Company for three years, followed by three years as manager of the Moundsville Water Company in West Virginia and three years as manager of the Vandergrift Water Company in Apollo, PA. After a year as Long Island Division Manager of the New York Water Service in Bay Shore, NY, he joined the Southern California Water Company in Los Angeles in 1950, and he was employed there until his retirement in 1992. At that point, he moved on to become president of the board of the West Basin Municipal Water District and director emeritus of the Metropolitan Water District. In 1976, he received a master of business administration degree from Union University. He was a member of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Rotary Club, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Palos Verdes Chamber of Commerce. He was also a director and president of the West Basin Municipal Water District and a director of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. He was married in 1941 to Jeannette Wehner, who died in 1972, and is survived by his second wife, Enrica Tonello-Smith, whom he married in 1975; a son, Charles L. Stuart, Jr.; a daughter, Merry Gale; seven grandchildren; and seven great- grandchildren.