R. Y. Stuart of Missoula – Chief of U. S. Forest Service 1928
United States’ Chief Forester Killed By Fall
Major R. Y. Stuart Formerly Served in Western Montana.
Major Robert Young Stuart, United States chief forester, formerly an assistant district forester in Missoula, was accidently killed at the Forest Service headquarters in Washington D. C., Monday.
A message received by Major Evan Kelley, regional forester here, told of his death, being corroborated by Associated Press dispatches. Major Stuart fell from the seventh floor of the building and death was instantaneous.
In 1906 Mr. Stuart came to Missoula to take his first forest position in the newly founded district No. 1, under District Forester W. B. Greeley. For six years he remained here as head of the silvicultural work of the Montana and Northern Idaho forests. He brought his bride to Missoula to make the family home in 1907. His first work was on the old Hell Gate forest with W. W. White and T. C. Spaulding on timber claims.
Left Here in 1912.
Leaving here in 1912 Mr. Stuart was for five years a forest inspector from Washington headquarters, then served more than two years in France with the A. E. F., receiving the rank of major. Returning in 1920 he became deputy commissioner of forestry for the state of Pennsylvania, in 1922 became forest commissioner for that state, in 1923 secretary of forests and waters for Pennsylvania, and in 1927 he returned to the Forest Service as chief of the office of public relations. On May 1, 1928 he was named forester of the United States and has remained in that position since, as head of the Forest Service of the United States. He visited Missoula regional offices once or twice a year on inspection tours and renewed old acquaintances from his residence of earlier years here.
The above article appeared in The Daily Missoulian on October 24, 1933.
https://www.newspapers.com/image/352107256/?terms=r%2By%2Bstuart
Stuart Is Called To Washington
Popular Forestry Official Receives Promotion And Will Leave Missoula.
R. Y. Stuart, in charge of the office of silviculture of Field district No. 1, will be transferred November 1 to the Washington office, as one of the special inspectors to supervise timber sale operations of the service. The transfer will materially broaden Mr. Stuart’s field of activity, since it will give him the opportunity to visit sales in practically every district of the forest service.
Mr. Stuart has had a long experience in the service and it is on account of his special qualifications that he has been drafted as a part of the Washington office force. He will specialize on the work involving timber sales, estimates, investigations, planting, etc.
Mr. Stuart has been in the forest service for a period of approximately six years. He is a graduate of Dickinson college, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, class of 1903, and a post-graduate of Yale forest school in 1906. During the summer of 1905, he was employed by the forest service in some special work in New York and New Hampshire, returning to the forest school at the end of the summer to complete his course. He entered the forest service under regular appointment as forest assistant in July, 1906, and worked on actual timber operations in the field until January, 1908. During this period he covered areas in Montana and Wyoming. Upon the reorganization of the service providing for chief inspectors with local headquarters in the west, Mr. Stuart was appointed as forest inspector, with headquarters in Missoula in January 1908. Under this plan of organization the inspectors possessed no administrative authority but investigated cases of controversy and complaint, and also took up the work on each forest to insure its coming up to standard. On the creation of the district office organization in December, 1908, Mr. Stuart was assigned in charge of the office of operation, which position he held for approximately a period of two years, being transferred as assistant district forester in charge of the office of silviculture in January, 1910, which position he now holds.
In speaking of Mr. Stuart’s transfer yesterday, District Forester Silcox said:
“Mr. Stuart’s work has been of a uniformly high character, thorough and conscientious. His ability to get along with the men in the field has made him of particular value to the district, and the force of both the district and field officers regret very much to lose the close direct personal contact with him which was possible when he was directly assigned to the district.”
Outside of the forest service Mr. and Mrs. Stuart have made many warm friends in Missoula. At the same time Mr. Stuart’s friends will rejoice at his promotion and wish for him and his wife a pleasant home and continued prosperity in Washington.
The above article appeared in The Missoulian on September 28, 1912.
R. Y. Stuart in Missoula
The Missoulian reported on several talks that Mr. Stuart gave while he was a resident of Missoula. A member of the community, he was well remembered:
R. Y. Stuart and R. A. Silcox spoke at Willard School in 1908. Each of these men became Chiefs of the U. S. Forest Service.
Stuart spoke about the history of Arbor Day and its importance, and the growth of trees. Silcox spoke about the types of trees in Montana and the work of forest rangers and nurseries.
In 1909 Stuart spoke to students of U of M, emphasizing the losses by forest fire and the improvements in the work of fighting these.
In January of 1910, at a Florence Hotel dinner given for Professor Henry Grave, the head of the Yale Forestry School, Stuart entertained the audience with his stories:
“Pleasures of a Corncob, was the subject of a toast by Assistant Forester R. Y. Stuart who told many amusing stories and anecdotes, all of which brought smiles to the faces of the guests. Mr. Stuart has a fund of stories, all of them good, and he was called upon last evening to use many of them. At the close he was given hearty applause for his share in the entertainment.”
In March of 1910, W. B. Greeley, F. A. Silcox and R. Y. Stuart (all to be chiefs of the U. S. Forest Service) gave talks regarding District # 1 at the Harnois theater. Twenty-two forest supervisors attended the meeting.
For further information on R. Y. Stuart see the following links:
https://foresthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Stuart_Robert_Y_1.pdf
https://foresthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Stuart_Robert_Y_2.pdf