Friends say goodbye to Dr. Stewart

You could describe Henry Stewart as an old-fashioned doctor.

In the eyes of the more than 200 friends, family members and patients who attended his funeral Thursday, he was that and a model for what a doctor should be.

Unlike many practitioners, they said, Stewart never stopped making house calls and refused to raise his prices more than he absolutely had to. They also said Stewart was a devout man who believed he should treat more than just the medical symptoms of his patients.

"He was probably the poorest doctor who practiced 50 years in this community," said Sam Palazzolo, a patient for 45 years. "Poor financially but not in friends."

"He wasn't just treating their medical symptoms," said Pastor David Bauer of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church that he and Stewart helped found in the 1950s. "He was interested in helping them to a better life."

Ken Dupree told a story of how Stewart's young children asked once why they couldn't go on fancy vacations like some other doctors' children.

Stewart, Dupree said, asked them whether they would rather go on a safari or have a less-fortunate child be able to afford a coat for winter.

"His children gave in," said Dupree.

Charlene Mann, who worked for Stewart, said he taught "kindness toward the elderly, respect for our veterans and compassion for the poor." She said he refused to charge those who were poor, unemployed or on a fixed income for their office visit.

Stewart died suddenly July 1 at age 83, ending a medical practice many Carson City residents have relied on since 1955.

"He wanted to 'keel over,' as he put it," said his son Richard, of Fallon, adding that his father didn't want to die of some lingering illness. "Well, he was in his office Thursday and died Saturday so that's pretty much what happened."

Virgil Getto, of Fallon, a former state legislator and friend of Stewart's for more than 60 years, said his death came as a surprise.

"I thought Henry would live forever," he said.

Getto said they became friends while teenagers before World War II when Stewart, raised in Lovelock, was president of the Nevada State 4-H. Getto followed him the next year in that post.

When he was seriously ill in the 1970s, Getto said, Stewart would make late-night rounds, check on him, and pray for his recovery.

"He was a guiding light."

Bob Shaw was a teacher when Stewart and his wife, Lois, arrived in Carson City, and said they have been "fast friends" for a half-century.

"He was so different from everybody else. He had a manner about him and you knew right away this man was a Christian. He cared about people's worth."

Richard Stewart said his father's best years were the last 20.

"He quit delivering babies in the 1980s. He was working 35-40 hours a week. That's so much better than the 100 hours a week he was working when we were growing up," he said. "There were only four doctors in town then, so one of them was always on call. He was at a lot of birthday parties in the middle of the night."

But, he said, until the end, his father kept office hours a couple of days a week, and visited seniors who have been his patients for decades.

Stewart is survived by his wife of 58 years, Lois, whom Dupree described as Stewart's "one and only true love," his sons Richard of Fallon and John of Reno; daughter Sylvia of Riverside, Calif.; and two grandsons, Henry Allen and John Austin.

• Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.