Civil servant.
Born at Selkirk on 19 March 1908, son of Robert Miller Stuart and Alice Hannah Steinhoff, grandson of James Stuart, he was educated at the University of Minnesota and the University of Manitoba. He first worked as a clerk at Winnipeg Hydro in 1925. He remained at Winnipeg Hydro until 1948 during which time he became the organization’s employment officer.
Loaned to Jules Preudhomme as a secretary in 1944, he was instrumental in the creation of the Preudhomme Report. Issued in 1945, this report reviewed wages and qualifications for every municipal job. When the City of Winnipeg set up the Employer-Employee Advisory Board, he was appointed secretary (1948-1950). In 1950, he became the first full-time Personnel Manager of any city in Canada, a title he held until his death.
A specialist in his field, he was a member of the Greater Winnipeg Personnel Association, serving as its President from 1946-1947. International president and honorary life member of the Public Personnel Association in 1967, he was also chairman of the Founding Committee of the Canadian Chapter of the Public Personnel Association, a founder and honorary life member of the Canadian Western Region of the Personnel Association, and a member of the civics bureau of the Chamber of Commerce and the Manitoba Medical Service.
A member of Harrow United Church who was active on the Board of Stewards, he also served this church as chairman of the board of trustees and of the building committee. He was a President of the Winnipeg Optimists Club (elected in 1948), associated with the Sea Cadets in Winnipeg and the Junior Chamber where he founded the first Blood Donor Clinic. He was also a board member of Roslyn House.
On 23 September 1933, he married Ina Carroll Carmichael (1908-1998) at Winnipeg and they subsequently had three children: Sandra Diane Stuart (1934-2001, wife of Gordon Holland), John Carmichael “Jack” Stuart (1936-2016), and James “Jim” Stuart.
He died at the Winnipeg General Hospital on 27 May 1970 after suffering a heart attack during a dinner honoring him at the Manitoba Club.
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Stuart House (478 Eveline Street, Selkirk)
Birth and marriage registrations, Manitoba Vital Statistics.
1911 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.
“Personnel man,” Winnipeg Tribune, 7 December 1948 [Manitoba Legislative Library, Biographical Scrapbook B10, page 73]
“Personnel cheif, Stuart, 62, dies,” Winnipeg Tribune, 28 May 1970.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 29 May 1970, page 27.
Obituary [Ina Carroll Stuart], Winnipeg Free Press, 20 January 1998, page 53.
Obituary [Sandra Diane Holland], Winnipeg Free Press, 17 February 2001.
Obituary [John Carmichael Stuart], Winnipeg Free Press, 4 April 2016.
This page was prepared by Sarah Ramsden and Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 26 December 2023
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