Point Reyes Light - December 5, 2002

NBC courtroom artist Stewart of Bolinas dies

By Larken Bradley

Renowned courtroom artist, Bolinas resident Walt Stewart, whose vivid sketches of criminals, crooks, and con artists brought trial drama to life during a career that spanned nearly 40 years, died in his home Wednesday, Nov. 26, of complications from pulmonary disease. He was 71.

Emmy Award winner

A three-time Emmy Award art winner, Mr. Stewart sketched notorious nogoodniks including murderers Dan White, Charles Manson, and Theodore "the Unabomber" Kaczynski. His first courtroom drawing assignment was at the trial of Jack Ruby, who killed alleged John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.

Fate played a strong role in Stewart’s life, but maybe no more so than in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. Mr. Stewart walked to his bank on Daly Plaza to deposit a paycheck from WFAA-TV, where he worked as commercial graphic artist and set designer. As bullets hit President Kennedy’s passing motorcade, Mr. Stewart aimed the Polaroid camera he happened to have with him at the open second floor window in the Texas Book Depository, from which the shots rang out. As the nation reeled, his still photos were the first used on national television broadcasts.

Some months later, WFAA-TV sent Mr. Stewart on assignment at the Ruby trial, and his career was born.

Hundreds of friends

A resident of West Marin for more than 25 years, Mr. Stewart’s outgoing, disarmingly friendly nature drew to him legions of friends. Three weeks before his death, after doctors informed Mr. Stewart his days were numbered, he honored the occasion by throwing a big party. His final bash launched a series of visits to his Horseshoe Hill home "from hundreds of friends," his sister Susie Stewart told The Light on Monday. An additional 200 phone calls came in, she added.

Born in San Francisco on July 14, 1931, Walter Preston Stewart, III, grew up in Berkeley. His father’s business, Stewart Hill Commissaries, provided meals for agricultural workers in the San Joaquin Valley. His mother, Frances Stewart, was an activist and naturalist in West Marin.

In 1956 after graduating from the University of the Pacific in Stockton with a degree in art, Mr. Stewart hosted a kiddie television show, playing himself as Uncle Walt. He later went on to the Art Center College in Los Angeles and earned a second bachelor’s degree in illustration.

Bound for New York with the hope of landing a job in an advertising agency, Mr. Stewart stopped in Dallas to visit a couple of friends from UOP who played football with the Cowboys. Mr. Stewart never made it to New York but accepted a job with the Cowboys, and designed the team’s lone-star logo. He later moved on to WFAA-TV as a talk show on-air illustrator.

Breaking ground as one of the first courtroom illustrators in the country, Mr. Stewart prepared for the Ruby trial by studying sketches from Nazi Adolf Eichmann’s trial in Israel. At the Ruby trial he was taken under the wing of courtroom artist, Howard Brodie, who became his mentor. Over time Mr. Stewart made his way back to the Bay Area where he spent his career as an employee of NBC, while freelancing for other networks and news agencies.

At nearly every famous trial in the last four decades, including those of Sirhan-Sirhan, Squeaky Fromme, and Oregon guru Bagwan Sri Rashneesh, Mr. Stewart captured telling moments when attorneys or judges showed emotion, and when witnesses reenacted a dramatic event or recounted an incriminating detail.

"He drew Charles Manson so often, Charles Manson would wave and smile at him," his sister told The Light on Monday. The trial that touched him the most was that of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, "because he became friends with all the victims’ families," Stewart added.

His final assignment last June was at the trial of Yosemite slayer Cary Stayner. Though Mr. Stewart was ailing at the time, "he had a really strong work ethic," said friend and personal assistant Jenny Rodin. "He knew it was his swan song."

From age 18 when he contracted polio, Mr. Stewart struggled with a series of health problems. While polio left him with a distinct limp, "his attitude and humor helped him through life," reported friend and newscaster Ed Leslie of Stinson Beach. "He kept plunging on."

Consummate bachelor

While Mr. Stewart never married, "he had a rich romantic life," laughed his sister. "He was a bachelor to the hilt."

Added his assistant, Rodin, "he never was the marrying type . . . he liked his freedom."

Before moving to West Marin, Mr. Stewart lived in a series of boats anchored in Sausalito with a talking parrot named Dum Dum. Friends there dubbed him "The Marquis de Sausalito." After earning a boatload of money from his work on the John DeLorean trial, he purchased a shiny cherry-red Cadillac sporting vanity plates which read, "THNX JDL" [thanks John DeLorean].

A great storyteller who enjoyed sharing anecdotes of his courtroom adventures with friends and strangers, "Walt was not a modest fellow," remarked Rodin. "He really loved admiration."

With tongue in cheek, he anointed himself "a living legend," she revealed.

Large donation

In the weeks before his death Mr. Stewart donated the collection of his life’s work, comprising tens of thousands of sketches, to the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley.

Mr. Stewart is survived by his sisters, Susie Stewart of Bolinas; Fairfax Donovan of Santa Rosa; nephew, Preston Donovan of Petaluma; niece Deirdre Matthews of Conifer, Colorado; and his cousin, Morton Lippmann of Stinson Beach.

A memorial service is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 11, 2003, to be held at the Stinson Beach Community Center. Anyone interested in attending may call 868-1444 for more information.

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