Lander’s Jim Stewart has had some big surprises in life that include serving on a Navy submarine, having a heart attack, and discovering a daughter he never knew he had.
Already on the far side of 50, Stewart had thought he’d lived much of his life already, then a DNA miracle gave him a new life he never expected.
Stewart recalls he was about 55 when his son received an email from a woman saying that she thought she was a relative.
His son was skeptical, and Stewart said he also didn’t believe it at first.
The woman, who had been adopted as a child, used a DNA testing company to track them down.
Stewart, now 86, said his son took the lead in questioning the woman. When she said that her mother, who has since died, was a Casper College student, Stewart said he immediately understood there was a “probability.”
That led to the woman, named Jeannean, making a trip from Colorado to see him in Lander.
She had been a teacher and is now retired, unknowingly following the same career path as Stewart, who’s a retired English and art teacher.
They continue to email and talk back and forth.
“It was a surprise. It’s a nice addition to say, ‘Hey, here’s somebody I fathered who wants to communicate,’” Stewart said. “That in itself is a benefit. She ought to know that, right?”
It’s one of the many important events in a life that’s been long, never boring, and took a frightening turn a month ago when Stewart found himself on the floor of his bathroom instead of in bed where she should have been.
He had a heart attack in the middle of the night during Wyoming’s powerful winds on March 12.
‘I Puked And Puked’
The U.S. Navy submarine vet, whose “boat” was buffeted by Pacific typhoons during his time in the service, keeps rolling with the reality life throws at him.
He stays grounded in the affection he has for his adopted hometown, hoping to continue devoting hours of his time to Lander's senior center, museum, and teaching a class at Wyoming Central College.
“I love Lander,” he said.
The son of a career serviceman and World War II Navy veteran who later switched to the U.S. Air Force, Stewart was born on Christmas Eve in 1939 in Rhode Island during his dad’s assignment there.
Following graduation from high school in 1958, he enrolled in the U.S. Navy and became a torpedo man on the World War II-era diesel submarine the USS Carbonero.
The submarine had its home port in Hawaii, but Stewart spent considerable time at sea as the boat fulfilled its Cold War missions.
He said some of those involved following Soviet and Chinese ships around the western Pacific — designated WESTPAC by the military.
Unlike modern submarines that can stay submerged for months on end, the diesel submarines had to resurface frequently to run the engines and recharge batteries that provided propulsion under the water.
“The first year during the first WESTPAC trip we were in 17 typhoons,” he said. "Out of those, we rode 14 out at sea. I puked and puked.
"Submarines don’t have a keel, just a round bottom, and so they roll.”
After discharge in 1962, instead of returning to live in Denver where his family was at the time, his brother told him to join him in Casper where he was working for the U.S. Geological Survey.
Stewart visited, enjoyed the “escape from” Colorado and enrolled at Casper College.
Love Of Learning
For the next several years he stayed in higher learning moving to the University of Wyoming to earn a bachelor’s degree in English, master’s in art and later a master’s in English.
“I was broke all the time,” he said. “I had to earn some money and go back to college off and on.”
His art focus included drawing and painting.
In 1986, he had the opportunity to teach English and art at Wyoming Indian Schools, and Stewart moved to Lander.
He met the woman he would marry, and they had a son, Mike Stewart, who is now an internal medicine physician in Spokane, Washington.
The couple are now divorced.
In Lander, Stewart became fascinated with the Native American drawings on rocks in the region called petroglyphs.
He also became a collector of Native American ledger art from the 1870s to 1890s that are drawn on paper. He now has about 100 pieces.
The Lander Museum has done a show using his collection and Stewart, who has volunteered at the museum for many years, helped teach about petroglyphs and the ledger art.
Stewart said he started volunteering at the museum and senior citizen center following his retirement from teaching at the Indian school in 2004. He also has taught a class on petroglyphs at Wyoming Community College.
Lander Museum Director Randy Wise said Stewart has an “incredible wealth of knowledge and experience” related to Native American artifacts.
“He’s a real fount of knowledge about Native American culture and history, particularly beadwork,” Wise said. “Even now, he’s someone that I will probably call first to see if he has any thoughts if we get something in that we don’t know the answer to.”
For years, Stewart helped with displays at the museum and led treks to local historic sites, especially the petroglyphs, Wise said.
Heart Attack
Also unexpected was his heart attack that occurred as high winds tore through the state.
Stewart said he had taught his petroglyphs class at Wyoming Central College, and because power was out in the city, stopped at a Thai restaurant for some fried rice — he knew they cooked using a gas stove.
He went home to bed and around midnight got up to use the restroom.
“The next thing I knew, I thought I was in bed and I wasn’t,” he said. “I was laying on the floor in the bathroom. I didn’t realize I was bleeding, because I hit my head when I went down on something that had an edge on it.”
Stewart said he could not even crawl and it took him two hours to return to his bedroom where his cellphone was and call 911.
He was taken to the Riverton hospital because of the wind and the impossibility of flying out of Lander. From there he was helicoptered to Banner Wyoming Medical Center in Casper.
Stewart said he spent the next seven days in the hospital due to complications. During that time, he received a pacemaker for his heart.
Since returning to Lander, his healing process has been a day at a time. He’s working with his teaching assistant and friend to continue the petroglyphs class.
Stewart calls his son, the doctor, daily and they talk about his progress.
At this point it is unclear when he will get back to washing dishes at the senior citizen center or being able to share his Native American knowledge at the museum.
He knows who he is — a man of faith who strives to be “honest” and loves his adopted hometown where he has made a lifetime worth of friends.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
