The Rev. Hezekiah D. Stewart Jr., the founder of the Watershed Human and Community Development Agency in Little Rock, has died, the organization confirmed Thursday. He was 80.
He is survived by his wife, Diane, who serves as the assistant executive director of Watershed.
Stewart founded Watershed in 1978 with the Mount Nebo African Methodist Episcopal Church, where he began preaching in 1976.
"Rev. Stewart positively impacted the lives of countless thousands through his servant leadership and commitment to Christ's call to love your neighbor as yourself," Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. said in a statement Thursday. "Under his guidance, The Watershed has done immeasurable good here in Little Rock and across our region for more than 45 years. He was a pillar of this community and an example to all of us."
The oldest of six children, born to a single mother in North Charleston, S.C., in 1942, Stewart attended college at Allen University in Columbia, S.C., before earning a Master of Divinity degree from the Interdenominational Theological Center's Turner Seminary at Atlanta.
Stewart was assigned to Mount Nebo in the fall of 1976.
When he arrived the church had fewer than 100 members, according to an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article about Stewart published in 1994, by which time the congregation had grown to almost 300.
"What I walked into was a field ready for harvesting -- there had been so many people before me who had planted and watered," Stewart said.
Watershed began as an outreach ministry of Mount Nebo intended to feed, educate and financially assist community members. By 1983, the organization moved into the former Gillam Elementary School on Springer Boulevard, where it remains today.
Stewart said the mission of Watershed was "to turn people around through retooling and re-schooling. I've learned to love people how I find them ... all of them belong to the Lord -- the good and the bad, the rich and the poor and all those in between."
In early 2022, Stewart was given the Humanitarian Award during the Queen's Gala Benefit Concert & Banquet held at The Venue at Westwind in North Little Rock.
In 2021, Scott proclaimed Oct. 14 as Rev. Hezekiah David Stewart Day in honor of Stewart's 79th birthday.
"Growing up in Little Rock, one knows the impact of The Watershed, 'the world's first social hospital', and its leadership under Rev. Hezekiah Stewart," Scott wrote in a tweet about the proclamation.
One of Scott's predecessors who worked with Stewart was Jim Dailey, who served as mayor from 1993 to 2006.
"I respected, admired and loved him," Dailey said when initially contacted about Stewart's passing.
Dailey's time working with Stewart began during a "horrible time in the city history" when Little Rock was ravaged by gang violence.
When Dailey's administration first began evaluating and analyzing how "we could deal with that and change the path of many of these youth for the future," Watershed was among the organizations it identified as prevention, intervention and treatment programs.
"I think his organization represented a little bit of all of it, because he provided the healing, treatment and counseling for individuals, as well as organizations," Dailey said. "He became such an icon of giving goodness and love."
Dailey described Stewart as "one of those individuals that I don't know how you ever replace someone like that. Because ... many people have the love and passion to help others, very few have the kind of commitment to just weather the storms, build new programs. The love he had for those who were in need, it just was unparalleled."
If Stewart were to be interviewed now, Dailey predicted that "he would probably try to take all the credit away from himself, which he always tried to do. But he was the glue, he was the vision, he was the committed personality."
Bruce Moore, Little Rock's city manager since 2002, also said the city and state had lost an "icon" with Stewart's passing.
"He was a very caring person, about not only the clientele at The Watershed, but the city overall," Moore said. "He often would call and give me good counsel on what we should be doing and I always appreciated it."
Stewart was described as having a "heart that would cover several football fields" by Joan Adcock, the longest-serving city director in Little Rock's history, first elected in 1992.
"I never saw him push somebody away because he was tired," Adcock said. "He was always there to help. And it didn't matter who they were, what color they were. And if they [were] different in any way than he was, he was there to help them."
When asked by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in 1994 what he eventually wanted his tombstone to read, Stewart's response was simple: "He cared."
The Rev. Hezekiah Stewart (center) visits with Timothy Baker, Beverly Parker (right) and others waiting to register for free food, clothes and toy donations from the Watershed Human and Community Development Agency on July 28, 2010. More photos at arkansasonline.com/922stewart/. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette file photo)Gallery: Rev. Hezekiah Stewart, Jr.: A life in pictures
