Loren LaSells "Stub" Stewart (January 10, 1911 – January 2, 2005) was the owner and president of the
Bohemia Lumber Company and a state representative from Oregon House District 14. He is the namesake of
L. L. "Stub" Stewart State Park.
Early life
Stewart was born in 1911 in
Cottage Grove, Oregon
Cottage Grove is a city in Lane County, Oregon, United States. Its population was 10,643 at the 2020 census. It is the third largest city in Lane County. It is on Interstate 5, Oregon Route 99, and the main Willamette Valley line of the CORP railr ...
, to LaSells and Jessie Stewart. His father worked for the
Booth-Kelly Lumber Company His maternal grandfather was Jasper Hills, namesake of
Jasper, Oregon
Jasper is an unincorporated community in Lane County, Oregon, United States. It is southeast of Springfield on Oregon Route 222, at the confluence of Hills Creek and the Middle Fork Willamette River.
Jasper was the site of a siding of the Southe ...
.
Stewart graduated from
Cottage Grove High School
Cottage Grove High School is a public high school located in Cottage Grove, Oregon, United States.
History
The new school building, opened in 2003, replacing the old high school building which had been built in 1939 and held its first classes in ...
in 1928 and entered
Oregon Agricultural College
Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...
, graduating in 1932. He was given the nickname "Stub" in school when his friends noticed that he was always the shortest person in class,
and he was known for most of his life simply as Stub Stewart.
Bohemia Lumber Company
In 1946, Loren Stewart and his brother Faye Stewart along with his brother-in-law Larry Chapman purchased the Bohemia Lumber Co. from LaSells Stewart for $300,000. Loren became president in 1950, and he quickly increased production from 80,000 board feet per day to 130,000. He also increased the payroll from 80 employees to 150.
[ Stewart remained president until 1976.]
Political activities and philanthropy
Stewart served three terms in the Oregon House of Representatives
The Oregon House of Representatives is the lower house of the Oregon Legislative Assembly. There are 60 members of the House, representing 60 districts across the state, each with a population of 65,000. The House meets in the west wing of the ...
from district 14 during the 46th, 47th, and 48th legislative sessions from 1951 to 1955.Oregon Parks and Recreation Department
The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD), officially known (in state law) as the State Parks and Recreation Department, is the government agency of the U.S. state of Oregon which operates its system of state parks. In addition, it has pro ...
renamed the planned Washington County State Park in honor of Stewart for his nearly 40 years of volunteer service to the parks department. L. L. "Stub" Stewart State Park opened in 2007.
The Stewart family became benefactors of The LaSells Stewart Center
The LaSells Stewart Center is the performing arts and conference center on the Oregon State University campus in Corvallis, Oregon, USA. The Stewart Family donated the money used to construct the center, and it is dedicated to the memory of La ...
at Stewart's alma mater, Oregon State University.
References
External links
Bohemia, Inc. History
1911 births
2005 deaths
People from Cottage Grove, Oregon
Businesspeople from Oregon
Oregon State University alumni
Republican Party members of the Oregon House of Representatives
20th-century American politicians
20th-century American businesspeople
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