Preliminary Inventory of the Milton D. Stewart Papers

Milton D. Stewart was born in Brooklyn, New York on March 5, 1922. He earned his B.A. from New York University (1941), his M.A. in Journalism from Columbia University (1945), and his law degree from George Washington University (1952). Stewart began his career working for the Office of War Information in Washington, D.C. during World War II and went on to serve as the research director for the President's Committee on Civil Rights (1946-1947), as a research associate and lecturer at Columbia University and associate professor at the New School for Social Research (1947-1948), as an administrative assistant to Representative Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. (1948-1949), as an analyst in the Bureau of the Budget (1950-1952), as an assistant to partner with Brown Brothers, Harriman & Co (1953-1955), as special counsel to New York Governor Averill Harriman (1955-1958), and as chief of the legal department at the New York State Thruway Authority (1959-1961). From 1961 to 1974, Stewart founded and directed a major venture capital small business investment company.

In 1978, President Carter appointed Stewart Chief Counsel for Advocacy at the Small Business Administration. He held this post until 1981, when he moved to Phoenix, Arizona and founded the Small Business High Technology Institute, which promoted innovation in small businesses and helped to foster relationships between these firms and the government, large companies, and universities. Stewart died in Phoenix on November 5, 2004. He was survived by his second wife, Joan (Graves) Stewart, and three children.