Stewart Scott Galt ’49

Stewart died Jan. 8, 2024, in Somerset, N.J.

He grew up in Ferguson, Mo., the youngest of four brothers. Throughout his life he spent summers at a family cottage on Lake Michigan in Macatawa, Mich. Stewart came to Princeton from St. Louis Country Day School and earned his degree in U.S. and modern European history in 1950; he was a member of Whig-Clio and Prospect Club. After graduating he served four years in Air Force Intelligence, where he continued Russian language studies begun at Princeton with a year of intensive study at Syracuse University. While stationed in Germany, he met his future wife, Liliane Sommer, of Bern, Switzerland; they married in 1954. Liliane died in 2014.

Stewart had a successful career as an international businessman, working for 39 years in the export department and later sales department of Simmons Mattress Co., including in Cuba during the Cuban revolution.

Known for his kindness, keen wit, and extensive family genealogy work, Stewart was a devoted husband and father, an avid bridge player, skier, pianist, a proud Princeton alumnus, linguist, world traveler, and reader of history, fiction, The New York Times, and the Princeton Alumni Weekly. When he moved back to New Jersey in 1980, he returned frequently to campus as a season-ticket holder to McCarter Theatre.

Stewart is survived by sons Stephan, Fritz, and James; their wives; five grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.