Marjory (Watt) Stewart

50th Alumni Profiles
B.A. '82, M.A. '87 - Marjory (Watt) Stewart
Attorney, Marjory S Stewart Law Office, LLC .....
Career History Since Graduation I coached track and cross country running teams at Brock U (men and women); served as director of lifestyle programs at the YMCA of St Catharines and managed numerous running events (including a major event affiliated with the Molson Indy) before moving from Ontario to Texas. In Texas I did a PhD (nutrition) and two post doctoral fellowships (pathology, biochemistry), worked as a senior research associate on a project for Dow Chemical, and started a wellness company. I continued to create and manage running events to assist various nonprofit organizations with their funding. I coached soccer for eight seasons. Then I went to law school. My family moved to Wisconsin when my husband accepted an endowed chair at Marquette U business school. After passing the bar I began law practice working in a Wisconsin firm but within a year started my own firm. I still practice at Marjory S Stewart Law Office, LLC.
Most Memorable York University Experience There are many contending great memories. A few years ago I greatly enjoyed returning to YU to deliver my son Ben to a York PhD (Politics) program (although he decided to go to law school instead and will soon graduate from Harvard Law). In the 70s I loved doing my little weekly program on Radio York and had many fun experiences with the basketball, cross country and track teams. Beating Western in a close 4x800m race was thrilling. Our YUTC running coach, George Gluppe, lavished effort on our training programs. We did some incredible workouts, like single-leg hopping the Tait stairwells many, many times. When the CN Tower staged a stairwell race, some of the track club members signed up. I remember getting to the top and running into a teammate. We both thought we could go faster, immediately. We both went down the elevator, repeated the race, and recorded the fastest times of the day. While George was unorthodox, if you survived his sessions, you certainly got fit, and generally had fun.
I also enjoyed the early days of the Black Creek food coop, evenings of star gazing from the YU observatory, and the phenomenal late-night, inventive jazz concerts of David Mott and his students in the basement of Bethune.
York University Anecdote or Highlight The first time I qualified for the nationals in track I made it by one tenth of a second. I was not as naturally fast as some members of the York team. George bluntly said so, but kindly noted that I worked as hard as than anyone he knew. Rich Hughson later told me at the High Performance Testing Unit that I had the highest blood lactate he'd ever seen after a treadmill test. It served me well to know these things when I finally got fast enough to compete in bigger races.
I was lucky to have Tom Duck as an undergraduate advisor. By and large, his high energy enthusiasm for my initiatives and academic traverses helped me frame the journey positively.
I was even luckier to have the support of Caroline Davis when I was completing my masters, while training hard to get back to race shape after having my first child. She could not have been more understanding.I summoned every nugget of training theory and exercise physiology knowledge from York classes and wrote a training plan that got me fit enough to win the CTFA Marathon Championship in Toronto. In the final miles one of my old basketball captains shouted encouragement that rang out along the Danforth. Mary Lou Parisi, an unmistakable force of nature, assured me that the race was all mine. At that time the lead was a matter of seconds and I was running like a scared rabbit, hoping the second woman would have a little less kick than I hoped to muster. I was using reflections in shop windows to keep an eye on the gap and watch for attacks because I knew it would be close. A scream from Mary Lou was a bit of a helpful anesthetic even if I initially thought she was crazy to believe I had it locked up at that point. I sure did not want to let anyone pass, and didn’t.
Highlight(s) of Professional Career As a coach I could help with complex challenges. I feel the same way as an attorney.
I like quietly making others better.
Community Involvements/Contributions (Local to International) Volunteer leader of Junior Great Books, Odyssey of the Mind, Forensics. Mock trial judge for various competitions. Director of dozens of races and sporting events. Pro bono legal services including for veterans returning to work and starting companies. Coach. Volunteer judge. Class action brief writer. Nonprofit grant writer. Bar association leadership. Journal editor. Support of human rights monitoring programs and environmental causes. Attended Inaugural Olympic Academy of Canada (Calgary). Served on boards of sport governing bodies, local clubs, event management teams. Raised over a million dollars for charity through managed sport events.
Honours and Awards R Tait McKenzie award for contributions to basketball (captain), track, and cross country teams.
National Achievement Award from the Province of Ontario. National XC, TF and road racing medals. Academic scholarships. Collaboration for successful NIH and other grants. Publications.
At this point I attach most significance to notes and gestures of appreciation. I continue to try to make my clients, clerks, athletes and family successful. Generally their achievements exceed mine.