Seems to be a season for the loss of giants. On that near-perfect first day of spring just passed, a couple of hundred of us gathered at Carol Woods to remember Pearson Stewart and celebrate his life.
Pearson Haslam Stewart put in 90 years, and from the recollections offered it seems most of that time he was either dancing or fully engrossed in making this a better place to live.
The facts and titles of his life are impressive enough, but they don’t tell the whole story. On Saturday, it took several speakers and a grandson reading from an unfinished autobiography to flesh out the picture. Mark Burnham, who worked side-by-side with him during the early days of Research Triangle Park, reminded us of Pearson’s dogged determination to introduce better planning and zoning at that critical moment when the little towns around the park were about to boom; former Raleigh Mayor Tom Bradshaw spoke of his efforts to foster regional planning; and former Chapel Hill Mayor Jonathan Howes spoke of Pearson’s passion for nature that got him involved in the genesis of the Triangle Land Conservancy.
These were big things — the foundation that gave this region a chance to grow and prosper, to leverage the brainpower of three universities and, somehow, not turn into another Atlanta. (Pearson would be the first to argue that the challenge remains.)
The other day on the phone, William Friday put it this way:
“I knew him as one of the founding sprits of the whole Research Triangle development. His sense of beauty is one of the reasons the place is such a remarkable demonstration of industrial development respecting nature and all of its glory. He was a first-rate citizen and a man not given enough credit for what the Research Triangle Park really is. He blessed us all.â€
Throughout it all, the man danced — English folk, square and what have you. There was joy in his heart. And with his dancing partner all those years — his beloved Jean — he continued to contribute in all kinds of ways to the betterment of this place long after most of us would be glad to just put our feet up.
He never quit. After Jean passed away about 10 years ago, he started mentoring a prisoner at Orange Correctional Institution and became a literacy coach for an adult learner. And until very recently, he pulled a weekly shift as a seed sorter at the N.C. Botanical Garden.
Pearson has danced on, and, yes, that’s sad. But he left this place far better than he found it, and showed by example the satisfaction of that as a lifelong pursuit. — Kirk Ross