Bruce Stewart impacted the lives of thousands of Guilfordians through the years. That these lofty ideals were not limited to classroom discussions or these goals we talked about were not for other people, but for us β and that we should pursue them.
He definitely raised my sights and ambitions. He loved being around students. He was The memorial may be viewed on Zoom. Bruce helped transform Guilford from an overwhelmingly white preserve for students from East Coast families to a more diverse and inclusive college. Guilfordians say he possessed a gift of weaving almost any discipline into a course or cafeteria discussion with the greatest of ease. His faculty residence on George White Road, where he and his wife Jean lived, was frequently an extension of those conversations, an incubator for ideas and, more important, action, said Acting President Jean Bordewich.
And he loved Guilford. At rubber-chicken Rotary lunches and high-end cocktail parties alike, Bruce enjoyed regaling others with the story of a rail-thin year-old showing up for his first year at Guilford knowing little about Quakerism and even less about the College rooted in its tenets. Indeed over time β 14 years as a staff member until and 18 more years as a trustee β the outsider became synonymous with Guilford, having left an indelible imprint on thousands of students and the College itself.
Bill remembers running into Bruce at a social function in Greensboro. At the time, Bill was a student β and not a particularly good one β at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
He was overwhelmed by the impersonal atmosphere of a large state university, with its sprawling seat lecture halls, classes often taught by graduate students and assessments reduced to multiple-choice tests.
