Services scheduled for Robert Douglas ‘Scott’ Stuart, 72

Scott Stuart

Robert Douglas Stuart III, lover of all things Adirondack and, in turn, loved by a wide circle of friends, family and neighbors, died February 27, 2012 of complications from a stroke suffered on February 24th. Scott, as he is known to all, was 72.

He was surrounded at the end by many of those who cared for him, most especially his wife of almost twenty-five years, Penny and his daughter Pamela.

His life revolved around the upstate New York communities of Inlet, Old Forge and Eagle Bay, where his family had a camp known as Paownyc on Fourth Lake in the Fulton Chain.

Founded over 100 years ago by his great-grandfather, O.M. Edwards, the camp served as a gathering point each summer for a seemingly endless procession of aunts and uncles, cousins and friends, their children and grandchildren.Scott would preside over all the water activities—waterskiing, tubing, sailing and boating—from his post on the Main Dock, offering direction, guidance, teasing and laughter. He was never happier than when the dock was full and the activities non-stop.

A special pleasure was entertaining his two chocolate Labradors, not surprisingly named Adi and Daxi in a nod to his favorite part of the world. They were his constant companions as he patrolled Paownyc.

He was a voracious reader, consuming the latest page-turners and urging the best of them on to anyone who would listen. His own love of reading motivated him to donate literally hundreds of books to the Inlet Library.

When day was done, Scott would preside over dinner, entertaining friends and family from the end of a long, candle-lit table liberally stocked with all manner of beverages, of which Diet Pepsi with lime was Scott’s preferred choice.

Late into the evening, his distinctive cackle could be heard echoing around camp, and this also became a magnet to draw still more to the table.

His countless acts of generosity, many of them anonymous, touched individuals and institutions in every corner of the communities he loved.

The Inlet Fire Department and Library, the community park, the Arts Center in Old Forge—these are just a few examples of the many who were the beneficiaries of his attention, either through donations, books or outright gifts.

In recent years, he was perhaps the most proud of having conceived and funded a bus that every summer weekend would go to all the neighboring restaurants and bars, collecting those who needed to be collected and delivering them safely home. The program made a difference.

When news of his stroke spread around Inlet, there were impromptu gatherings of those who knew and loved him to toast and tell “Scott Stories.”

The inventory of these tales was deep, the connection of those telling them to Scott poignant and palpable.

Scott Stuart was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1939, and spent his formative years in Ross, California, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.

He led his brothers and sister on many adventures in the hills surrounding Mt. Tamalpais before his family moved to Lake Forest, Illinois, and he headed off to the more restrictive confines of Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts.

After Deerfield, he graduated from Princeton and then joined the Navy as an intelligence officer.

After completing his service, Scott signed on with the First National Bank of Chicago, eventually rising to become the number one bond salesman at the bank and an almost mythic figure in Chicago sales circles for his intensity and talent.

Later in his career, he moved to Syracuse to be closer to his beloved Adirondacks, finally retiring from the Syracuse office of the RBC-Dain Rauscher investment firm.

In retirement and away from the Adirondacks, Scott loved to cruise with Penny in the Caribbean and elsewhere.

Less than two weeks before his death, he and Penny returned from an extensive cruise around the islands of Indonesia with his 95-year-old father Bob Stuart, stepmother Lillan, whom he adored, brother Jim and sister Marnie.

In 1962, he married Sally Getz. They had a daughter, Pamela Stuart, who lives in California, where she raises and trains horses. She shares her father’s love of the Adirondacks.

His subsequent marriage to Penny McCurn introduced Scott to her extensive and close knit family, who by remarkable coincidence had a camp two driveways down from Paownyc on Fourth Lake. He embraced Penny’s loving family as his own, as they did him.

Penny survives him, as does his daughter Pamela, father, two brothers, Jim Stuart and Sandy Stuart, and sister Marnie Pillsbury, along with numerous nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews on both the Stuart and McCurn sides.

Calling hours will be held on Saturday, March 3rd between 1 and 4 p.m. at Edward J. Ryan & Son, 3180 Bellevue Avenue in Syracuse. A funeral service will be celebrated on Sunday, March 4th at 4 p.m. at Most Holy Rosary Church, 111 Roberts Avenue, also in Syracuse.

There will also be a service at View, the arts center in Old Forge, on Monday, March 5th at 4 p.m. A reception will follow.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Inlet Volunteer Fire/Ambulance Fund, P.O. Box 300, Inlet, NY 13360; the Inlet Library, P.O. Box 274, Inlet, NY 13360; View, P.O. Box 1144, Old Forge, NY 13420; and Most Holy Rosary Church, 111 Roberts Ave., Syracuse, NY 13207.

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