I'll always remember Jon as my roommate in Beirut following the bombing of the embassy.  He was a great roomie who helped us all get through the trauma.

Jack served in three posts with your dad, and I met your parents  in Saudi Arabia and served again in Pakistan. We shared so many great memories. I sent your dad an email in early July, as I did from time to time, and never heard back. That was so unlike him that I searched and found this link. 

My deepest condolences to you. He and I shared when Jack and then your mother died. Jon remained my Mideast ballast, always ready  to share his  knowledge and perspective. Both of your parents were great friends and this loss hits hard.  I hope his passing was easy for all of you.  

I will never forget all the fun times Dick and I had with Jon and Ginny.  Now I'm the only one left; thankfully memories help me through these "alone" times.

My sincerest condolences to Colin and Brian. Jon was a wonderful superior and fully deserving of that word. His calm intelligence and outstanding organisational skills made our office in Beirut a haven for me and for the rest of the staff. He was clearly respected by the press corps and by senior colleagues. I was proud to work for him.  I learned as much from him as I could because he had a genius for creative solutions.  For example, one of our cultural employees  drove everyone  crazy with his  complaining and nagging.  Certainly Jon's predecessor had  found him impossible.   Jon observed how he wore colleagues down with nagging and promptly reassigned him to an admin  job following up on our requests for repairs and supplies.    Suddenly, we began getting everything we needed in record time.  Another time he called me in and said, 'we need more money!'  His intention was to use the anti Soviet policy in Washington to increase our budget. He ordered me to visit my cultural counterparts at all the eastern bloc country embassies to assess their budgets so we could report to Washington that we were being outgunned.  I really missed Jon and Ginny after leaving the Foreign Service and was glad we remained friends. They came to my wedding in Paris all the way from Pakistan although they might have cancelled because the ambassador had been killed just before they left. I will continue to miss their laughter and friendship but I always considered them an ideal couple and I know they are together again. 

Wish I could be with you for the wonderful memorial for Jon. Afraid distance from  Maine makes that impossible.
Ginny was a very old friend and I remember the excitment when she met Jon, they got engaged and them married.  Then the next year Brian what a cute baby you were!
Then off to overseas and what an exciting career.  We always kept in touch and were able to get together for the last time in Phoenix.  It was just like old days.
The world is a poorer place without them!
With much love
Nancy Bishop

Jon was my roommate in Beirut following the evacuation of non-essential staff and families in 1984.   He was a quick thinker who resolved potential problems.  The evacuation left behind our pets until I was able to "arrange" a military helicopter to fly them to Cyprus where the human evacuees went earlier.  However, word got out to the press in Nicosia about that upcoming "ark" flight.  Happily, Jon was aboard the earlier flight and staved off the press corps from meeting the pets arrival.  Had he not done that we all would have caught some grief from Washington and the Defense gurus.   

We met Jon and Ginny in Egypt, on our first overseas assignment. Since both Ginny and I were caring for infants (Brian had recently been born) and our husbands were not in the same sections of the Embassy, our most frequent encounters took place at Embassy functions.  Ginny later took a position in my husband’s office and our opportunity for friendship expanded.   We were delighted to find ourselves neighbors in the same apartment building when both Jon and Frank were assigned to Beirut following the June ’67 war. That was a 2-year stint in which we solidified a friendship and welcomed Colin into the world. Later times brought them from Saudi to visit us in New Delhi and set the stage, following retirements, for many 2-3 hour lunch visits along I-5 stops in Oregon as they returned to Seattle from Arizona vacations and we visited our families in Oregon and Washington, as well as in their homes in Seattle and Bothell.  Following the death of my husband, another friend, whom we all knew from Egypt days, and I traveled around the perimeter of the U.S. visiting everyone we knew. We arranged with the Stewarts to meet in Lewiston, Idaho and travel up the Snake River together. We had a most delightful 3 days in Lewiston with them and the Snake River trip was someone’s brilliant idea—Jon’s I suspect.
I had every intention to stay in touch with Jon, next to the last of my long-time friends, and a shared link with some of the past—and nothing but good memories. He was so well read and so well traveled and still had so much to offer. When we get this far down the road we should not be surprised at the unexpected. Nevertheless, my heart hurts at the loss of this friend. May God hold him in the palm of His hand.  


OBITUARY

Jon Wayland Stewart

December 4, 1931 – July 21, 2019

Evergreen Washelli Funeral Home & Cemetery

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