Remembering Roger Stewart

REMEMBERING ROGER STEWART

      I am sorry to say that I didn't get to know you as well as some students did. When you were a seventh grade teacher at Lincoln Middle School, I was placed in the other seventh grade homeroom class. By the time you became Oakland High School principal in 1983, I was gone overseas my senior year as an exchange student.
      It wasn't until after I graduated from O.H.S. that I fully appreciated your character,
In the early 1990s, the Oakland School Board decided to remove Rolling Stone magazine from the library because of its content. As a reporter for KOBI-TV at the time, it was awkward for me to approach people I knew to obtain comments for a news story. I was able to persuade superintendent Joe Reed (who supported the ban) and O.H.S. librarian Barbara Peebles (who opposed the ban) to go on camera to offer their opinions.
      Roger Stewart was the only person, whom I remember, who provided me feedback afterwards. The next time we bumped into each other, he said I had done a good job presenting the story, and objectively presented both sides of the issue.
      Twenty years later, when I was a substitute teacher, I faced a difficult decision. I needed to know if a particular course of action would adversely affect my teaching career. Roger Stewart was the one I went to for advice, because I knew I could trust his experience as an educator, and at the same time know that he would not violate my confidentiality in that situation.
      Roger, I am sorry that I did not have the chance to know you better. It is truly my loss.