Dr. Bernard K. Stuart, longtime community activist and civil rights leader who participated in the march on Washington in 1963, died in a fire early Wednesday at his home.
Stuart, 76, was a dentist, former president of the local NAACP and former Fort Wayne Community Schools board member. His life intersected with the lives of many whom he guided in positive directions, friends and colleagues said.
An ambulance was called by a medical alert company to 6615 Monarch Drive off Maplecrest Road about 3 a.m. The alert company also called a neighbor to whom Stuart had given a house key, Fort Wayne Fire Department spokesman Bob Amber said.
Paramedics entered the house, but smoke and fire blocked their way. Police officers unsuccessfully tried to extinguish flames with an extinguisher kept in a squad car, Amber said.
Firefighters arrived at 3:05 a.m. Three minutes later, Stuart was removed from a second-floor bedroom. He was pronounced dead at the scene, Amber said.
Investigators determined the fire was caused by electrical failure in the bedroom where Stuart was found. Stuart apparently pressed a medical alert button but could not escape, Amber said.
As president of the local NAACP, Stuart marched in the civil rights rally Aug. 28, 1963, in Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech.
Hana Stith, curator and founder of African/African American Historical Museum and the first black teacher in Fort Wayne Community Schools, said Stuart had just finished writing his family history for the Allen County Historical Society and handed in the article two weeks ago.
Stith grew up with Stuart in the Westfield neighborhood on the city's near southwest side. As a young boy, he was curious about medical science, collecting bugs and dissecting a frog. He was an avid reader as well, Stith said.
Stith remembered Stuart telling her about discrimination he experienced at dental school. He was not allowed to treat white patients, said Stith, who believes those experiences led Stuart to the civil rights movement.
"We lost another awesome individual in our community," said the Rev. Michael Latham, current president of NAACP. "I'm really shocked and don't know how to respond to it."
"He was rather a quiet, a calm type of person. He made me feel that it was a safe place to be," Latham said. "Everybody who met Dr. Stuart simply became liking Dr. Stuart and respecting him."
Stuart suffered a stroke several years ago and retired from his dental practice at Lafayette Medical Center. He also closed his small clinic on South Calhoun Street, but that did not make him inactive, friends and colleagues said.
Stuart had been a volunteer dentist for many years at the Matthew 25 Health and Dental Clinic downtown that provides free medical services for the poor. He showed up at the clinic every Monday morning to see patients, said Nancy Schenkel, the administrator.
"It's very heartbreaking to us," Schenkel said about Stuart's death. "He was a very fun gentleman. He had a great sense of humor. He loved to tease people, and we loved to tease him."
For FWCS Superintendent Wendy Robinson, the memory of Stuart is more personal. Stuart was Robinson's family's dentist. She remembers visits to Stuart's clinic on Calhoun until she left Fort Wayne to go to college.
"He was always trying to make the community a better place and always looking out for the needs of other people," she said. "I am obviously grateful to him being on the school board and the decisions and directions he set for this district."
Jonathan Ray, president and CEO of Fort Wayne Urban League, knew Stuart as one of only two dentists in the city who accepted Medicare clients in the mid-1990s. Ray was the director of the Allen County Division of Family and Children from 1995 through 2005.
"Dr. Stuart was willing to take clients who needed vital dentistry service, and he did it for poor and disfranchised people," Ray said. "We were glad to work with him because he provided a service that, without him, would not have existed for poor people."
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