Dr. Stewart received from Amherst College BA in Philosophy and Political Science, and Ph.D. in Geography from Clark University. He taught for 28 years at Bridgewater State College (1970 - 1998), serving two terms as chair of the Department of Earth Sciences and Geography Previously, he served three years as boarding school facilities manager in Liberia, taught five years at the Episcopal High School in Liberia, one year at the Duxbury (Massachusetts) High School, and three years at Kenyatta (secondary school)Teacher Training College in Kenya, and was a geographic analyst for the Episcopal Church making community surveys for congregations and dioceses from 1960 to 1965.

He has been recognized as an outstanding teacher of college geography by the National Council for Geographic Education, for service to geography by the New England St. Lawrence Valley Geographic Association, and as a leader in open space preservation in southeastern Massachusetts.

One of his major interests is in coastal land-use in relation to shoreline changes and inter-town cooperation.

Dr. Stewart served as editor of the NESTVAL newsletter for three years, on the steering committee of the Massachusetts Geography Alliance for five years, was chair of the Massachusetts Bays Education Alliance (part of the federal Coastal Zone Management estuary protection program), for 8 years until 2000, and has served on the steering committee of the Massachusetts Studies Project which supplies multi-media material to K-12 schools of the Commonwealth.