Marion Gordon Stewart Jr.

Published 12:01 am Sunday, March 15, 2015

Marion Gordon Stewart Jr.

March 1, 1925 – March 7, 2015

NATCHEZ — Services for Marion Gordon Stewart Jr., 90, of Natchez, who died Saturday, March 7, 2015, at Hospice Ministries in Ridgeland, will be at 2 p.m. Monday at Trinity Episcopal Church with the Rev. Walton Jones officiating.

Burial will follow at the Natchez City Cemetery under the direction of Laird Funeral Home.

Visitation will be at 1 p.m. until service time Monday at the church.

Mr. Stewart was born March 1, 1925, the son of Marion Gordon Stewart Sr. and Jennie Sharp Dixon Stewart.

Upon graduation from Natchez High School in 1943, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and trained as a pilot in the Naval Air Corps during World War II. His military training included educational stints at Millsaps, Texas A&M and St. Mary’s College in California. He received an agricultural engineering degree from Mississippi State University in 1948. While attending Mississippi State University, he was a member of Kappa Sigma Social Fraternity and Kappa Mu Epsilon National Honorary Math Fraternity.

Marion was the 1949 pilgrimage king representing the Natchez Garden Club.

He was a civil engineer for more than 30 years with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service. Upon his retirement from the USDA, he worked for the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality as a hydrologist for 10 years.

Marion was an active member of the Episcopal Church serving on the vestries at St. George’s (Clarksdale), St. James (Jackson) and Trinity (Natchez.) At Trinity, he served as an acolyte and senior warden and at St. James as acolyte director and Sunday school teacher. Marion was a member of Natchez Retiree Partnership.

He was preceded in death by his parents; one sister, Jane S. Talbot; and one son-in-law, Lt. Col. Arthur A. Holland.

Survivors include his wife of 66 years, Jane S. Stewart; three children, Sarah Anne S. Holland of Spokane, Wash., Jennifer S. Collins of Birmingham, Ala., and Gordon Stewart III and wife, Sharon, of Ridgeland; seven grandchildren, Heather H. Siewert and husband, Justin, of Vancouver, Wash., Meg H. Maglio and husband, Darin, of Spokane, Stewart Collins and wife, April, of Tampa, Britt C. Feist and husband, Trevor, of Littleton, Colo., Mary Allison Collins of Birmingham, Gordon Stewart IV of Richmond, Va., and Morgan Stewart of Jackson; and three great-grandchildren, Evan Maglio, McLayne Siewert and Jackson Collins.

Memorial contributions may be made to Trinity Episcopal Church, 305 S. Commerce St.; Natchez, MS 39120, Pleasant Acres Day School of Natchez, 335 Liberty Road, Natchez, MS 39120; or The Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi, People with Special Needs Endowment, P.O. Box 23107, Jackson, MS 39225.

Online condolences may be sent to lairdfh.com.