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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

NIC paying tribute to Popcorn Forum founder


Popcorn Forum founder Tony Stewart is being honored with a tribute concert given by the NIC Symphonic Band. 
 (File / The Spokesman-Review)
Carl Gidlund Correspondent

North Idaho College is going to honor one of its own Wednesday evening with a concert by the school’s Symphonic Band. It’s to celebrate the life and contributions of distinguished faculty member Tony Stewart.

The program is called “Bring on the Popcorn,” an especially appropriate title in honor of the founder and chairman of the popular Popcorn Forum Lecture Series, now in its 37th year.

Coeur d’Alene attorney and civil rights activist Norm Gissel calls Stewart one of the most unselfish men he’s ever known.

“He’s never said a word about his own needs,” according to Gissel. “And when he commits himself to a cause, he stays committed until he’s not needed any more.”

Stewart is nominally a political scientist and pre-law adviser at NIC, but to those who have worked with him on civil rights issues and public affairs activities for the past 36 years, he’s much more: a virtually indispensable part of North Idaho’s cultural fabric.

The 64-year-old teacher is one of the founders of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, formed in 1980 to counter the propaganda and activities of the Aryan Nations white supremacists.

A native of North Carolina and graduate of Western Carolina University, he earned his master’s degree in political science from the University of Tennessee, and did graduate studies toward a doctorate in political science at Washington State University.

Gissel, who calls Stewart “a treasured and valued friend,” says those Tennessee years provided him a front-row seat to the nascent civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King Jr.

For decades, Gissel says, members of the Aryan Nations and others tried to get Stewart fired from NIC because of his civil rights activities. “But he stayed, even after many midnight harassing phone calls, even after the murder attempt on Bill Wassmuth.”

The late Wassmuth, a Catholic priest and fellow civil rights activist, was the target of a bombing in 1986.

Coeur d’Alene attorney Janell Burke has been a frequent panelist on the North Idaho College TV-Public Forum founded by Stewart in 1972 and still produced and moderated by him.

“We met when I was a guest on the program back in 1975,” she recalls. “Tony invited me to return as a panelist, and the experience has certainly enriched my life.”

The 30-minute program has aired nearly 1,700 times on six public broadcast stations and is seen by viewers in Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Montana, Utah and Canada. It has featured such luminaries as inventor Buckminster Fuller, U.S. Sens. Frank Church, Slade Gorton and James McClure, singer and activist Carole King, and civil rights leader Julian Bond.

Stewart also produced and co-directed a 90-minute documentary titled, “Stand up to Hate Groups by Saying Yes to Human Rights: The First Ten Years of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations.”

And he’s recently produced and aired a 10-week series celebrating a quarter-century of the task force’s efforts.

“Tony is absolutely committed to equality and fairness,” according to Burke, “and to excellence too, especially in teaching. He makes sure that anything he’s connected with is done just right.”

Civic activist Mary Lou Reed calls Stewart “a magnificent impresario. He devotes countless hours to reaching people and developing themes, and our community has benefited tremendously by his efforts.”

She recounts that he has been a Hospice of North Idaho board member, was an early co-chairman of the Kootenai Environmental Alliance and, in the 1970s, led a petition drive that thwarted plans to build condominiums on the dike road between NIC and Lake Coeur d’Alene.

Stewart has also chaired NIC’s division of social sciences, served as a commissioner of the Education Commission of the States, taught political science at WSU, and has written articles for many publications, including the Ripon Form, National Civic Review, State Government and the Western Governmental Researcher.

His honors include the Northwest Communication Association’s Human Rights Award, the North Idaho College Foundation Faculty Achievement Award, and the Civil Rights Award from the Spokane County Democratic Party.

For all that, he remains a gentle man, says his friend Gissel.

“I’ve seen him mad only twice,” he says. “Once was when somebody falsely accused him of being impolite. I can’t even remember the other time.”

Wednesday’s musical program, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Boswell Hall’s Schuler Auditorium on the NIC campus.