Harold W. Stuart, Jr. ’52 died on May 3, 2022, in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts.
(The following was provided by Tribute Archive on May 3, 2022)
Harold W. Stuart, Jr. ’52
Harold W. “Bill” Stuart, DMD, ’52, died at age 91 at his home in Shrewsbury, MA, May 3, 2022, surrounded by the love of his family.
He was born in Stoneham, MA, Sept. 8, 1930, to Harold W. and Madeline (Swift) Stuart and grew up in Melrose, MA. Bill prepared for Bowdoin first at Melrose High School, where he was a member of the football, baseball, hockey, track, and rifle teams. His family moved to Brunswick before his senior year and he graduated from Brunswick High School, where he played on the basketball team.
Bill spent his first year at college at the University of Maine at Brunswick, the school’s freshman campus at the Brunswick Naval Air Base, as students on the GI bill swelled the system’s main campus in Orono. He transferred to Bowdoin as a sophomore. He lived at home at 9 Longfellow Ave., majored in chemistry, and became a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity. His parents were chaperones at Kappa Sig events.
Bill left the College after his junior year to begin his studies at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine under an agreement with the College that he would complete his requirements for graduation from Bowdoin by finishing his first year in dental school. He was certified as a graduate in June 1952. He earned his DMD degree from Tufts in 1955 and joined the US Navy for two years as a dentist at the South Boston Naval Annex. He ran a sole practice in Shrewsbury for more than forty years before retiring and where he and Jean lived for the remainder of his life.
He married Jean Armknecht in 1955, and together they raised four children, William ’80 of Rockland, MA, Kathryn Davis of Northboro, MA, Martha ’84 of Boston, MA, and Jon of Newton, MA.
Bill was a Bowdoin alumni interviewer for many years. He actively served his community as an elected town meeting representative and a Little League umpire and coach. He served the First Congregational Church in Shrewsbury in a variety of volunteer positions. He was a Boy Scout volunteer for more than fifty years as a scoutmaster, committee member, district volunteer, Wood Badge instructor, and camp volunteer. In 1989, Mohegan Council awarded him the Silver Beaver – the highest award a council bestows on a volunteer.
Bill and his son Jon spent two weeks hiking at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico in 1983 and together they hiked the 273-mile Long Trail through Vermont. He regularly hiked to the summit of Mount Monadnock during the first week in January every year until his early 80s.
He and Jean remained active in retirement, including participating in domestic and international Habitat for Humanity projects, volunteering with a medical relief program in La Romana, Dominican Republic, and assisting in a reforestation project on Midway Island. He also honed his talents as a watercolor painter, bird carver, and vegetable gardener in retirement.
Besides his wife of 66 years and his children, he leaves eight grandchildren and his brother Richard ’62 of Thomaston. He was predeceased by his parents (his mother worked at the Bowdoin Book Store in the Moulton Union from 1958 until her retirement in 1975) and brother Douglas ’57.