No...not "Jon Stewart." I'm talking about John Stewart, Provost of John Muir College at the University of California, San Diego. I found out this morning that John Stewart, a man who had a profound affect on my life in college, died last year.
I am an alumnus of John Muir College and UCSD and I knew John Stewart. I should note that we never called him John or Dr. Stewart or Professor. He was always "John Stewart." I don't know why. Some combination of closeness and respect. I probably last talked to John Stewart some 20 years ago, though he may have written me a letter of recommendation or two after that. But probably even that level of contact ended by 1990 or so. For a few years now I have wondered if he was still alive and well. When I knew him he was already 70 or so, and he was backpacking in the backcountry with myself and other gung ho college kids. He might not have been the fastest of the bunch, but I am willing to bet he could have out hiked us if push came to shove. He retired the same year I graduated, so my graduating class was the last he presided over as Provost. I remember being asked to give a short speech at a tree planting ceremony in his honor, an event where the music was played by folk singer and marine biologist Sam Hinton, another friend of John Stewart's. I can't remember what I said, I just remember feeling honored to be asked to do honor to this man. The tree is probably still there, I suppose.
The year I graduated I was awarded the "Muir Outstanding Scholar Award," which I think John Stewart gave to the graduating student he felt best contributed to the values of the college. It was one of the honors I was most proud of at the time.
John Stewart founded John Muir College in 1968 at UCSD, supposedly inspired by a hike he and his wife took. John Stewart's life by that point had already been rather amazing. He was on the verge of earning his Ph.D. (in Literature, I think) when WW II broke out. When he entered the military (can't remember if he said he was drafted or volunteered) the military found out he had been a ham radio fanatic while growing up and was skilled at electronics and communications equipment. They quickly recruited him for a top secret project developing a new technology called "radar."So he was part of the team that developed radar.
After the war, because of his role in developing radar, he was offered a professorship in engineering, even though his degree was going to be in Lit and he had never finished. They assured him it wouldn't matter. So he was basically given his choice of careers on a platter: finish his Ph.D. and go into Lit or jump straight to a professorship in engineering.
He says he finally decided he liked hanging out with the people in literature better than with engineers, so he finished his Ph.D. and went on to be a Lit Prof. But his specialty was music! By the time I knew him he was involved in both music (including playing in a jazz band called the "Mouldy Figs") and literature.
And the environment. He helped shape my environmentalism, my teaching techniques, and my political beliefs.
I had been raised by my mother to be a liberal, an environmentalist, a feminist...but my ideas were fairly vague. John Stewart was something of a mentor for me in these areas, getting me to focus on the environment and politics in a very concrete, practical way.
I had always been a hiker and backpacker. With John Stewart I became a backpacking leader, leading trips all over the California mountains and deserts. I had always liked teaching. With John Stewart I learned how to be a GOOD teacher and to lead effective discussions. I learned that loving the environment was all well and good, but environmentalism had to also be practical.
At some point as provost of John Muir College, John Stewart developed a class called "Contemporary Issues 20: Wilderness and Human Values." We all knew it as "CI20." This was a pivitol class for me. The story goes (I hope I am remembering it correctly) that he came up with the idea on a hike (you may notice a theme in his life!). He, his wife and his mother-in-law were all hiking one day when his mother-in-law asked him quite pointedly, "Why is it that a school named after John Muir doesn't have any kind of environmental program?" His wife turned to him and said, "Yeah...why is that?" So he developed CI20.
The idea was to consider the concepts of "wilderness" and "environmentalism" from a wide variety of viewpoints. The class was 90% guest speakers, invited by the student organizers. John Stewart gave lectures that tied it all together. Sam Hinton usually started the year with a musical, often humorous view of the environment, like a song (somewhat inacurate he pointed out) discussing evolution called "It's a long, long way from Amphioxus" (to the tune of "It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary"). Over the years I was involved we had Native Americans, Park Rangers, Dave Foreman (founder of Earth First), Dave Brower (founder of Defenders of the Earth and former head of Sierra Club), Roger Hedgecock (former Republican mayor of San Diego)...my mother once even spoke on the link between feminism and environmentalism. In addition to the lectures there were discussion groups. Each discussion group was led by a student discussion leader and would develop its own reading list and topics. Almost everyone who took the class found it affected them and their thinking profoundly.
I took the class my sophomore year. I became a discussion leader my junior year. My senior year I became a staff member, not only leading a discussion, but training discussion leaders and developing the curriculum for that year and inviting the guest speakers.
When I took the class I developed many deep bonds with those in the discussion group I was in. We took many backpacking trips, drank a lot of booze, and talked about just about everything. I remember one very shy, sheltered woman who just came out of her shell and developed into an assertive, activist person during the class. We all had a great time and learned a lot.
When I taught discussion groups they had the basic theme of the intersection among science, environmentalism and economics. Somehow I made it sound interesting enough that the first year I taught it it over filled. I was first trained how to be a leader, both in the wilderness where survival could be at stake with poor leadership, and in a classroom. And I formed new bonds. I dated one woman I met that year for several years. The following year I was the one actually teaching wilderness survival and classroom teaching skills, and helping determine the speaker list.
During this period I got to know John Stewart very well. I believe he was the person who got me to see Raising Arizona. And he has shaped how I think today.
The stories I remember from that period are many and faded. But I will tell John Stewart's favorite story, designed to warn us against vague and ill-defined teaching that may sound good but won't hold up to scrutiny. He told a story of someone he knew who took LSD in the early days of experimentation with drugs. The guy had an intense, introspective trip, which led to him having an epiphany, a great revelation. Desperately, before he collapsed into sleep, he wrote down his great epiphany.
The next morning, he looked at the paper where he had written the revelation:
The Banana is Great, but the Peel is Even Greater
John Stewart referred to this as the "Cosmic Banana," and each year the CI20 organizers would have a "Cosmic Banana" party with all sorts of banana themes. But John Stewart's main admonition was to Beware of the Cosmic Banana.
I plan on donating in John Stewart's name to Native Energy, since it seems to me now to represent a great deal of his beliefs all wrapped into one effort. But perhaps a donation to the Sierra Club in his name would be more appropriate if anyone reading this was a student of his.
