A Tribute to Rev. DG Stewart: A man after God’s own heart

“Jigme, Can you tell me anything about the present situation?  I seem bereft of information.  I heard an indirect report that the school had started again this year, but with only 100 boarders, and that it was deeply in debt.”

This is what Mr. Stewart wrote to me on June 27, 2012 in my email. He was concerned about Mt. Hermon (MH) thereafter, too, and perhaps till the very end.

I am happy and proud of the fact that I was in MH in class 2 during his last year as Principal in 1963. I believe it was him or Mr. Murray who asked me, “Do you like the school?” when I entered the school building for the first time in 1963 from the front porch. I said, “Yes.”

And for 16 short years (1963-1972 – student (1974-1975 – TTC) and (1976-1979 – teacher) I lived in MH and had a good time. I am a part of MH and MH is a part of me.

I remember him as a football referee – he was very strict – and when he used to come to the school dining room to announce the name of the Saturday night movie. When he used to say, “And the movie is technicolour” he used to get a loud applause from us. Those days most of the movies were black & white.

When Mr. Stewart visited MH in the latter part of 1970s he spoke about the need to have men and women of ‘integrity’ in today’s world in the school chapel. He was a great speaker and he spoke with much conviction.

I spent more time with him when he came for the school’s centenary celebrations in 1995. Mr. Stewart, along with other former teachers and students, wanted the school Managing Committee to seek induction of Hermonites in the Committee to help the school to forge ahead.

Thereafter, we kept in touch with each other till the very end.

When I think of Mr. Stewart I often compare him with King David of the Old Testament. Like the warrior-king of Israel Mr. David Stewart, too, was “a man after God’s own heart”.

God sent him to MH in the 1950s when the school was floundering and by the time he left it in 1963 our school was adjudged the best boarding school in India.

If we as Hermonites have contributed anything significant to society it is because we have been touched by this mighty man of God.

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever”. (Psalm: 23)

My family with Mr. DG Stewart in Darjeeling during Mt. Hermon School’s centenary celebrations in 1995. My wife Tsering, son Tashi and daughters: Yangchen and twin daughters Sonam and Kunga (only part of the head of one of the twins is seen in the pix) are seen in the picture.