David Stewart is being inducted into the Hall of Fame for his accomplished career in communications and community volunteerism.

David was an alumnus of the class of 1963. The last two years of high school he became a “teenage” reporter for the Knickerbocker News and attended the Columbia University Press Conference his senior year. He became part of the “Clyde & Claude” team of junior DJs working at Albany’s WPTR radio station with the infamous local legend “Boom Boom” Branigan. He gradually honed his talents doing voice-overs and reporting on fires and accidents leading him to meet celebrities such as Annette Funicello.

After graduating, David went to Ithaca College, enrolling in their new radio/television curriculum. While in college, he worked at radio stations in Binghamton and Malone. After graduation, he settled in Ithaca, working as a program director and news reporter at two local stations and opened his own Public Relations firm. He then branched out to the educational field becoming the Assistant to the President of Tompkins Cortland Community College. This lead to a position at Cornell University as Director of News and Features. While still at Cornell he advanced to Associate Director of University Relations. Attaining several state and federal awards lead to another promotion to Assistant to the Vice President for University Relations, and finally Cornell’s first full-time Director of Community Relations.

David’s career was not just in name alone. He practiced community relations working with the Collegetown Neighborhood Council easing tensions between the home-towners and the college fraternity and sorority students and working with other local committees and organizations such as The Chamber of Commerce. He also volunteered as Santa Claus at day care centers, nursing homes and service clubs. He has served as officer and board member for the State of NY Council on University Affairs and Development and presented at conferences for the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. He is also a member of the Council’s Hall of Fame. David volunteered his services to his college’s Alumni Association and received the college’s Distinguished Alumni Award and was named the Director Emeritus of the association in 2010. He also was elected to the college’s Board of Trustees, which he held until 2011.

Once retired he settled in the northern Adirondacks volunteering on planning committees, in food pantries, for AARP, and much more. David was nominated by his sister and alumna, Linda Stewart McDonald ’65.

Linda Stewart McDonald '65 nominted her brother David Stewart '63