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Henrietta Rhees Stewart ’31M (Mas): 1904–2007

PHOTO TEST: George Eastman asked his staff to photograph Henrietta Rhees Stewart, the daughter of then University President Rush Rhees, because Eastman thought Henrietta’s red hair would be a good test of a new color photography process. The photo was taken about 1914, when she was 10 years old.

Henrietta Rhees Stewart was born in February 1904, four years after her father, Rush Rhees, became the third president of the University. Mom grew up on the old Prince Street campus, and the house she lived in became the women’s dormitory after our grandfather and his family moved to the new River Campus.

In 1914, George Eastman asked if his staff could photograph Mom using the new two-color Kodachrome process. She had beautiful red hair, and Mr. Eastman thought that would make her a good subject for their color photography research. The glass color plates were given to our family, and we still have them. The images are quite remarkable.

In 1926, Mom graduated from Smith College, where her grandfather had been president, and returned to Rochester. She found a job working with Stanhope Bayne-Jones, a senior professor and chair of the Department of Bacteriology under the founding dean of the School of Medicine and Dentistry, George Whipple.

While Mom’s father would not allow her to be paid for her work because of her relationship to him as University president, Dr. Bayne-Jones felt that her bacteriology research was significant. He encouraged her to seek a master’s degree based on this work. She earned the degree in 1931 from the University, and her thesis was published in the Journal of Bacteriology.

Mom loved music, particularly opera and violin. She would listen to the Metropolitan Opera every Saturday afternoon while she baked fresh bread; with our late brother, we grew up on that musical Saturday tradition. Mom was also an accomplished horsewoman and a talented seamstress who made most of her own clothes—with such skill that it was difficult to tell them from the work of designers.

She always loved to travel. When she was a child, President Rhees and the family traveled to Egypt and Hawaii. Later, she went on many journeys with her late husband, Dr. John Stewart, and even in her 90s went on a trip with her family to Alaska.

Throughout her life, Mom continued to expand her mind, and in her 90s she took a “great books” course to reread some of the classics of English literature. She had a wonderful sense of humor that bubbled up at the most unlikely times, often turning a mishap into a hilarious story. She was also incredibly resourceful, a quality that served her frugal instincts well. When something broke, instead of having it repaired or buying a replacement, she would find an ingenious way to fix it herself.

Mom was a devoted daughter and wife, and a fond sister to her two brothers, both of whom died before her. She lived independently, humbly, and with a clear mind until she passed away on April 12, 2007, at the age of 103.

—Harriet (Happy) Callaway and Ione Crandall, daughters of Henrietta Rhees Stewart and granddaughters of Rush Rhees, as told to Kathleen McGarvey