Mooooved to a maritime career
My career in transportation was inspired by a cow,” says Dr. Richard Stewart. “Cows occasionally reward those milking them with a whip from their tails. Enough such swats upside the head convinced me early on that milking cows twice a day, 52 weeks a year at our farm in Whitewater, Wis., was not my career path. I decided to move on to maritime transportation.”

And move he has. Dr. Stewart started his maritime transportation career as an ordinary seaman, eventually working his way up the career ladder to hold an Unlimited Ocean Master’s License and serve as a commissioned captain in the U.S. Naval Reserve. Along the way, he took time off for formal studies, first at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (where he would return to head the Department of Marine Transportation), then on to the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (where he earned a master’s degree), eventually receiving his doctorate from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Urban and Environmental Science.

In addition to commanding freighters and tankers around the globe, Dr. Stewart has served as a port captain, a cargo expediter and a commercial fleet manager coordinating assets of over $300 million dollars worldwide. He has also held numerous academic and professional-society posts and certifications. Dr. Stewart’s professional and academic contributions, coupled with his wide and varied experience in both maritime and general transportation give him a unique perspective on the transportation industry.

In 2000, at the urging of his friend and mentor, Dr. Bernhard Abrahamsson, Dr. Stewart joined the University of Wisconsin-Superior. Here professor Stewart continues to train students to become successful in the transportation industry by inspiring them to solve problems and think creatively about the complexity and interdependent nature of transportation systems. (His students continue to receive numerous awards and honors.) His passion and enthusiasm for transportation issues is infectious; Dr. Stewart does not just share information, he shares insight, and he encourages students to think of opportunities instead of obstacles. Former students who are now working in the transportation industry had this to say:

“Dr. Stewart brings tremendous enthusiasm and first-hand experience to the classroom. He is an excellent teacher.” (Katie Ferguson, now in sales, marketing, and traffic with the Great Lakes Fleet, Inc.).

“ Dr. Stewart is a powerful instructor. He always had the answer to any question we might have on any facet of transportation. His depth of understanding and personal experience is amazing.” (Mark Ketola, now working in logistics analysis for Midwest Energy).

For Dr. Stewart, Duluth-Superior is the archetypal transportation community. “We rely on water, rail, air, highway and pipeline,” he says. “But people have to remember that no mode of transportation is independent of the other — except in the minds of the uninformed. The Twin Ports is one of the few places in the world where all five modes of transportation come together. Studying and teaching here is a unique opportunity.”

Fully engaged in transportation issues and initiatives, Dr. Stewart directs the Transportation and Logistics Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Superior and co-directs the Great Lakes Maritime Research Institute (GLMRI). (See story on Page 6).

As if Dr. Stewart were not busy enough, he has been an integral player in the July 2006 launching of the “Great Ships Initiative,” a $3.5 million research effort designed to specifically focus on development of technology necessary to prevent the introduction of aquatic invasive species into the Great Lakes by oceangoing ships (see story on Page 7).

He continues to present academic papers, supply expert testimony on transportation issues at state, national and international levels, publish educational text books, conduct research, support numerous civic programs … and, somehow, finds time to lead canoeing trips to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area for Boy Scout Troop 9!

Dr. Stewart lives in the Twin Ports with his wife, Kathleen Collins, and his four children. He is truly a man on the … moooove.