Remembering John Stewart, a Champion for Survivors
Experience. Wisdom. Graciousness. Fortitude.
Loyal friend. Staunch advocate. Generous soul. Tireless champion.
A patriot.
Those are just a few of the words used in the last several days by members of our staff and leadership team as we mourn the loss of John Stewart, long-time board member of the Children’s Cancer Cause and founder of our Stewart Initiative for Childhood Cancer Survivors.
John devoted his entire life to public service, working within the U.S. Congress, NASA, Tennessee Valley Authority, and the National Academy for Public Administration. He helped craft the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as an aide to Senator Hubert Humphrey, and he served in the White House while Humphrey was vice president. He led or was active in non-governmental organizations ranging from Tennesseans for Fair Taxation to the Tennessee Health Care Campaign.
The Knoxville News Sentinel ran an obituary with more details on John’s remarkable life and accomplishments: John G. Stewart, TVA manager and Democrat who helped craft Civil Rights legislation, dies
His son, State Rep. Mike Stewart, D-Nashville, said John wanted to improve lives and learned to do it through politics and policy.
“He saw early on that you could use the government as an instrument of great social change to benefit people without power," he said.
John Stewart with Children’s Cancer Cause founder Susan Weiner
It is difficult to overstate John’s contributions to the Children’s Cancer Cause. After losing his young granddaughter to medulloblastoma in 2000, John found us. He and his wife Nancy joined us on Capitol Hill, lobbying for passage of legislation to improve research and treatment for children with cancer. John and Nancy hosted our first DC fundraiser in the home of one of John’s old colleagues.
He was always a thoughtful analyst of our work and served as board chair for several years. John edited countless documents in the organization’s formative years, consistently offered sage political advice, and was forever a fighter for children with cancer. His activism on behalf of our children culminated in the creation of the Stewart Initiative, a truly unique effort that highlights model survivorship programs and provides resources and tools to empower the nation’s 500,000 childhood cancer survivors to be strong self-advocates for their long-term care.
John’s legacy with us lives on through the Stewart Initiative. Later this month we will announce the 2021 recipients of the Stewart Initiative’s Survivorship Champion’s Prize — an award made possible through the generosity and vision of John and Nancy. This award is presented annually to a group, program or institution making significant advances in programs and services to provide life-long health maintenance for survivors of pediatric cancers.
We send our deepest condolences to Nancy, the Stewart family, and everyone who knew and loved John. We are honored and thankful to have had him fighting along with us for the past twenty years.