Charles "Charley" Stewart, 83, of St. Simons Island, Georgia, died at his home on Thursday, October 12, 2023. His death was the result of a rare liver condition called nodular regenerative hyperplasia with portal hypertension, discovered at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida.

Charley was born July 15, 1940, in Washington, D. C. His parents were Mary Elizabeth Willoughby and John Daniel Stewart of Alexandria, Virginia, previously of Rochester, New York. Charley was baptized August 11, 1940, in the Church of St. Mary, Alexandria. His parents moved to Bethesda, Maryland, where he graduated from Our Lady of Lourdes School. He attended Gonzaga High School in 1954-55. His father became public information officer for a new federal agency located in Battle Creek, Michigan, where Charley attended and graduated from St. Philip High School, diocese of Lansing, in 1958. He enrolled in the College of Saint Thomas, Saint Paul, Minnesota, and earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1964.

He joined the Air Force Reserve after college. He was assigned to the 909th Civil Eng. Flt, 909th Military Airlift Op (AFRES) based at Andrews AFB, where he achieved the rank of sergeant. After he moved to St. Simons Island in 1975, he continued his military service in the Air National Guard in the 224th JCSS, St.

Simons/Brunswick, GA., making a total of 24 years, achieving the rank of Master Sergeant.

After his father died in Battle Creek, Michigan, his mother returned to Washington when the federal agency was brought back to the Capitol. Charley returned to D. C. to live with his newly-widowed mother. He was employed by the National Science Foundation.

He and his mother remained close personal friends with all those fellow employees of John Stewart's who had been moved en masse to Battle Creek and back again to D. C. They enjoyed entertaining each other with dinner parties every weekend at each other's homes. John Stewart had graduated from Notre Dame and that made his son Charley a devoted fan of the school's sports programs. He rarely missed watching a Notre Dame game. His other major interest, again due to the influence of his father, was national politics. Washington is a company town, (the company being the federal government) and his father was often in the thick of it, being an editor of the Washington Post. Reading daily a big city newspaper was required in Charley's home, as well as watching political opinion shows, the noisier and more arguments, the better. In 1961, he was invited to attend the presidential inauguration.

Mutual friends and work colleagues introduced him in April 1966 to his future wife, Dorothy Gene Houseal, who was employed at the Texas Instruments Field Sales Office on Connecticut Ave. in D. C. They were married at St. Dominic Church on E Street in SW Washington, July 29, 1967. Their first home was rented, an old garden apartment in Parkfairfax, a WWII housing development for military officers in the Virginia suburbs of D. C. There they had two daughters, Suzanne and Jennifer. In early 1971, they bought their first house, on Ellingson Drive in Chevy Chase, Maryland, an oldie that needed tons of work. Suzanne began attending Blessed Sacrament School near Chevy Chase Circle. Charley hoped that his children would have the same education he had had, but the parish was growing and soon the parish boundary lines were brought closer to the school, leaving his daughters ineligible to attend a Catholic school. This was one factor of several that decided Charley and Dorothy to leave the Washington area and move to Jacksonville Beach, Florida, where Dorothy's parents were living in 1974, and where they had spent as much vacation time as they could. Since Charley was then employed at the Washington Hospital Center, he assumed he would be able to find similar employment in the field of medical care finance.

It was not to be. He saw an ad in the Florida Times-Union for a position with the Coastal Georgia Regional Planning and Development Commission in Brunswick, Georgia. The ad sounded as if had been written just for him. The whole family drove up to Brunswick and waited in the car while Charley went in for his interview with Vernon Martin in the basement of City Hall. He got the job, and a month later he moved to St. Simons Island in February 1975. About a year later, his son Charles Andrew Stewart was born in the Brunswick Hospital.

From the RDC, Charley became finance director for Glynn County, finance director for the Coastal Georgia Area Community Action Authority, then Glynn County Administrator for ten years, followed by a multi-year stint as director of Strategic Planning for First American Health Care, then returned to Glynn County as Administrator for another ten-year period, retiring in 2010, from a job he loved with a passion. Working in Local government was so much more satisfying than national government, where many employees feel they are just tiny cogs in a huge machine, with no influence in solving problems at all.

Charley Stewart leaves a wife, Dorothy, of St. Simons Island; three children, Suzanne Dutton (Clayton) of Tattnall County, Jenny Wiggins (Jay) of St. Simons Island, USCG Charles "Chuck" Stewart, of Bayonne, NJ, and Staten Island, NY; ten grandchildren: Jennifer Holly Moran Brown (Mike) of Ash, NC; Jason Dutton, of St. Simons Island, and Ethan Dutton, and Cameron Dutton, both of Brunswick; Jake Wiggins, of St.

Simons Island; Megan Dutton and Julia Wiggins, of Statesboro; Lane Dutton of Glennville, Tattnall County; Simon Stewart and Ian Stewart, of Sussex County, NJ. Charley is survived by his sister Noelle Mahoney Rupprecht of Fairport, NY, his sister-in-law Catherine Stewart, of Washington, D. C., and many well-loved nieces, nephews, friends and neighbors.

Charley was predeceased by his older brother John "Jack" Stewart of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, in October 2010.

Funeral services will be held Oct. 24, 2023, at 11 a.m, at St. William Catholic Church, Frederica Rd., St. Simons Island, GA., with reception to follow in the Parish Hall.

Interment in Oglethorpe Memorial Gardens will be November 25, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, time yet to be determined.

Brunswick Memorial Park Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Charles Terrence Stewart, 83, of St. Simons Island, passed away at his home on October 12, 2023. Brunswick Memorial Park Funeral Home is honored to be assisting the family.