Dr. Bernard K. Stuart dies in house fire
Longtime dentist, activist once headed local NAACP chapter
Dr. Bernard K. Stuart, a Fort Wayne dentist and longtime community activist, died in a fire at his home at 6615 Monarch Drive early Wednesday.
Stuart, former president of the local NAACP, marched with Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington D.C. in 1963, during which King gave the famous “I have a dream” speech. He was also a Fort Wayne Community Schools board member and longtime volunteer at Matthew 25 Health and Dental Clinic.
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 who Stuart has given a house key, fire department spokesman Bob Amber said.
Paramedics entered the house, but smoke and fire blocked their way. Police officers confronted the flames with an extinguisher kept in squad cars, Amber said.
Firefighters arrived at the scene at 3:05 a.m. Three minutes later, Stuart was rescued from a second-floor bedroom. He died at the scene, Amber said.
Allen County Coroner Dr. E. Jon Brandenberger determined Stuart died from smoke inhalation.
Investigators said the fire was caused by electrical failure in the bedroom where Stuart was found.
The fire damage was contained to the second-floor bedroom, where parts of bed linens, carpeting and walls had burned, Amber said.
Smoke detectors were in place, Amber said.
The men and women who move communities seldom do it with a major thrust, but instead with small, effective pushes in the right direction. Dr. Bernard K. Stuart, who died in a fire at his eastside home earlier this week, was one of those leaders who persisted in moving the community conscience.
As president of the local chapter of the NAACP and as a Fort Wayne Community Schools board member, Stuart insisted on pointing out racial injustices and calling for change, including the desegregation of FWCS.
He often cited his own experiences to make a point. He recounted, for example, how he wasn’t allowed to treat white patients when he was a student at Indiana University School of Dentistry.
Stuart once recalled an incident at a grocery store where a child sitting in a shopping cart nearby pointed and said a racial epithet. The mother, obviously embarrassed, told Stuart that she didn’t know where her child had heard such a thing.
“I bet you don’t,” was the dentist’s curt reply.
In a 2004 interview, he commented on the 50th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision by expressing frustration over a lack of progress in public schools and the fact that black students and parents weren’t taking advantage of opportunities others had fought for.
He recalled his own parents’ involvement in their children’s education and their insistence that he and his siblings would not be assigned to vocational classes instead of the college-prep courses reserved for white students.
Stuart graduated from the old Central High School in 1947, then earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Hampton, Va., Institute (now Hampton University) before starting dental school. After graduation, he served with the Army for two years at a New Jersey base and then remained in New Jersey to begin his dental practice. He returned to Fort Wayne in 1959, operating his practice from a Lafayette Street office, and later an office on Calhoun Street.
Slowed by a stroke in 1997, Stuart continued to serve the community as a volunteer at the Matthew 25 Health and Dental Clinic.
He was a frequent contributor to the letters column of this page. His most recent contribution, published Sept. 26, was typical of his no-holds-barred style, harshly critical of President Bush for his “imperialistic foreign policy.”
His death marks the passing of another of the city’s civil rights leaders. Stuart’s good works and powerful lessons should remain.
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Friday, October 28th 2005 at 11:07AM
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