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TARPON SPRINGS — After dinner, he brought out the pipe. Paul Stewart loved tamping and repacking tobacco, and all of the associated pipe rituals his hands knew.
Mr. Stewart, who worked for Chrysler Corp. most of his career, rarely missed dinner. The table was his classroom, a place where he held court, posed riddles, asked probing questions and taught his children lessons he wished he had learned earlier in life.
As trails of blue smoke curled up around his face, Mr. Stewart told his family he had always wanted to be the editor of a small-town newspaper. He said he regretted not having finished college, treating almost as a cautionary tale his 20-plus years as a spokesman for Chrysler.
Before the dessert plates had been cleared, he had usually left his children with some kind of unresolved problem to work out. If it wasn't missionaries and cannibals crossing a river, it was a social or political issue.
Mr. Stewart would not reveal his opinions, or even tell them which political party he belonged to or for whom he was going to vote. (After his children reached adulthood, Mr. Stewart told them he was a registered Republican.)
"He taught us how to think rather than what to think," said Cheryl Stewart, his daughter.
If the kids wanted answers to his brain-teaser puzzles, they would have to figure it out on their own or wait a week.
Mr. Stewart topped off a successful career with a long-deferred ambition, spending a dozen years as editor of the Tarpon Springs Leader and Suncoast News. He later moved to Terre Haute, Ind., and died there Tuesday. Mr. Stewart was 90.
He grew up in Indiana and Michigan, the rebellious son of a Disciples of Christ minister.
"A pastor's kid is supposed to be perfect," said Cheryl Stewart, 59. "My dad said he did as much as he could to prove that wrong."
A high school debate champion, Mr. Stewart attended Albion College and Central Michigan University. But school bored him, and he left after his sophomore year.
He was a reporter for the Ionia Sentinel Standard, then landed a public relations job for Chrysler.
"I think he knew that was a pretty good job for someone who didn't have a college degree," his daughter said.
In 1949, he married Doris Rosecrance, the kid sister of a friend. He was the bookish one, inhaling mystery and spy novels. He also had a lifelong obsession with the lives of American presidents.
His children remember Mr. Stewart as a principled man who once persuaded his employer not to lay off workers at Christmastime.
After retiring in 1975, the Stewarts moved to Tarpon Springs. Mr. Stewart began working as editor of the Suncoast News, then the Tarpon Springs Leader. He dressed snappily and covered local news with gusto, flavoring any room he entered with his cherrywood pipe.
In the days before computers, Mr. Stewart's face became familiar as he hustled around town doing the newspaper's business. A local tobacconist named a pipe tobacco after him. He called it Editor's Choice.
In 1992, the Stewarts moved again, to Terre Haute. Their first choice was North Carolina, which was scenic but far from his children.
"We said, 'You don't want to think about it now, but you should move closer to us,' " his daughter said. In Terre Haute, the Stewarts were close to Pam Phillips, their other daughter.
Doris died in 2003. Mr. Stewart continued to read and also worked on a mystery novel of his own and a biography of President James Garfield. Sunday evenings, he filled out the New York Times crossword puzzle — in ink, as always.
He quit smoking nearly 20 years ago.
"But to this day, we still love the aroma of pipe tobacco," his daughter said.
Andrew Meacham can be reached at (727) 892-2248 or ameacham@sptimes.com.
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