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Alfred Edwin Stewart of Bridgehampton died on January 2 at his home. The proprietor of Stewart Electric for 35 years, he was 80.
Born May 23, 1928, in the Bronx to Edward Sugarman and the former Florence Bimstein, he grew up in the Bronx and Manhattan and attended the High School of Music and Art, then graduated from the Bronx High School of Science. He earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from New York University.
Three years after graduating, he joined the U.S. Air Force as a commissioned officer and was stationed in Cambridge, Massachusetts, during the Korean War. He was then sent for two years to Nevada, where he assisted the Air Force with tests measuring the effects of the atomic bomb.
Upon being discharged from the Air Force, Mr. Stewart went to work for the U.S. Navy, designing torpedo guidance systems and working on sonar at Sperry Gyroscope Company for 16 years.
After a total of 20 years of high-tech military work, Mr. Stewart moved to the Caribbean island of St. Croix in the 1970s. There he ran his own yarn manufacturing company, Virgin Island Spinning Corporation, for four years and also manufactured faux fur coats.
Mr. Stewart always kept a vacation home in Springs and, at the decline of his manufacturing business, decided to move there full-time. He worked briefly for an electrical contractor before establishing Stewart Electric in 1972. His business grew quickly, moving from the back of his 1957 Chevy to his house, and finally to a facility on Lumber Lane in East Hampton.
An avid sailor and ice boater, he ran a sail charter business for five years during his stay in the Virgin Islands and kept a boat in East Hampton at Three Mile Harbor. He enjoyed ice boating on Mecox Bay and Sagg Pond. In addition to reading historical biographies, he was a lover of music and served as a longtime member of the Choral Society of the Hamptons. He was also a member of the Jewish Center of the Hamptons.
A marriage to the former Patricia Ronson ended in divorce in the early 1990s and Mr. Stewart took up residency in Bridgehampton. On June 16, 2005, he remarried to Helen Copper Stewart, who said that she will miss his great sense of humor and his inquisitive mind.
In addition to Ms. Stewart, he is survived by two sons from his previous marriage, Matthew Stewart of California and Eben Stewart of Wales, United Kingdom; a sister, Joan Levy of Rehovot, Israel; and four grandchildren.
Funeral Services were held on January 12 at St. Ann’s Episcopal Church in Bridgehampton. The Reverend Timothy Lewis of St. Ann’s Church and Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman of the Jewish Center officiated. Mr. Stewart’s ashes will be dispersed at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, donations to the Bridgehampton Ambulance Company, PO Box 1280, Bridgehampton, NY 11932 would be appreciated by the family.
on Jan 28, 2009