Stewart given coveted Book of Golden Deeds
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Stewart was born in DeKalb County, the first of six children born to Homer and Elizabeth Stewart. His family later moved to a farm near Dibrell where he was educated in the schools of DeKalb and Warren counties. After graduating from high school, he attended Tennessee Tech studying pre-pharmacy. He attended the University of Mississippi for one year before transferring to Detroit Institute of Technology where he could work in the automobile factories during the summers.
While in Detroit he met Warren County native Jo Sanders and they married in September, 1950. Their only son was born the next year followed by five daughters.
On completion of pharmacy school he moved back to Warren County where he worked for John B. Magness at Magness Pharmacy on Main Street. After that he was partners with Ernest Crouch, first at Harvey?s Pharmacy in Nashville and then when the partners opened City Drug in McMinnville in 1955. In 1966 he opened Stewart Plaza Pharmacy in the Plaza Shopping Center where he has served the community for 40 years.
?Nestor has always been deeply committed to involvement in activities which would better the community,? said award presenter and Evening Exchange member Jimmy Priestley. ?He worked with the American Cancer Society going to the schools of Warren County showing films encouraging the students not to smoke, and he served as president of the McMinnville Civitan Club in the ?60s.?
Stewart served five terms on the McMinnville City Council, including three terms as vice mayor. He served as chairman of the city?s Safety Department and the Water and Sewer Department. His community service included two seven-year terms on the board of directors of Warren County General Hospital, including seven years as its chairman.
?His love of service to his community has truly been a passion in his life,? Priestley said. ?In his chosen profession of pharmacy, he has long been active on a local, state, and national basis. In the Tennessee Pharmacist Association he has served for many years in the House of Delegates. At the national level, he holds membership in the American Pharmaceutical Association and National Association of Community Pharmacists.?
Stewart follows in his father?s footsteps in operating the family farm in Warren County, where he raises cattle and Tennessee Walking Horses. He has been a horse enthusiast all of his life as he started showing walking horses throughout Middle Tennessee as a teenager.
In 2003, Stewart was named Mr. Warren County in the Southern Standard?s Best of the Best contest.
?Nestor Stewart?s character is truly defined by his service to his church,? Priestley said. ?He as served many small churches in Warren, Coffee, and DeKalb counties as itinerant minister, serving congregations at Highland, Unity, Pocahontas, Bybee Branch, Bluff Springs, Arlington, Corinth and many others. He has never claimed to be a preacher, just a speaker.?
For many years he has been an active member of the Central Church of Christ where he serves as an elder and Sunday school teacher.
At the center of Stewart?s active life is his love an devotion to Jo, his wife of 55 years. Together they have sacrificed and worked to raise six children with love and kindness. Their children are David Stewart and Mary Woodlee of McMinnville, Ella Wilson of Brentwood, Donna Carr of McMinnville, Sherri Stowe of Hong Kong, and Gina Craig of Rockford, Mich. They have 16 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.