Biography
Captain Edward Stewart's name was added to the Gold Star Hall in September 2003 because of his grandson, Matt Husby. Husby was sitting outside the Memorial Union by the fountain eating lunch when a campus tour came by talking about Gold Star Hall.
"It occurred to me that I had never looked to see if my grandfather's name was on that wall," he said to the Iowa State Daily. After discovering that his grandfather was not listed, he gathered the necessary documents to submit the appeal.
Edward Stewart entered college in the fall of 1930.
"He might have been in chemistry," Husby said, "but switched to engineering when it looked like he would have to take over the family farm."
Edward grew up near Boone, Iowa. While in college, he was in the Reserve Officer Training Corps, Boy Scouts, and had joined the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. He left Iowa State to join the military.
During the war, Edward served as a forward spotter for an artillery unit. He was struck and killed by an enemy shell in Italy on November 29, 1943.
A telegram came at 11:20pm on December 17, notifying his wife of her husband's death. He was 33 years old and the father of two.
"Grandma remarried and continued on," Husby said to the Daily. "It was sad and tragic and had a definite impact on her life, but she had a family to raise. She lived to build a future, not dwell on the past."
Edward was posthumously awarded the Legion of Merit and the Purple Heart.
Husby's mother was only seven years old at the time. Husby further commented about his grandfather,
"He was a great man and there isn't a day that goes by since I recieved the letter that he would be added that I haven't thought, 'Man, I should try harder,' like I am not living up to what people expect of me.'"