Terry Lynn Stewart

Terry Lynn Stewart died on Saturday, the 9th of August 2014 near Steamboat Springs, Colorado, four days after his 60th birthday. He and a flight instructor perished in a plane crash during a flying lesson in the mountains.

Terry was born on the 5th of August 1954 in Williston, North Dakota, to Bill and Wanda Stewart. He was the only child of a mobile family, growing up in West Texas, Alaska, and California. After graduating from high school, Terry worked as a ranch hand and offshore roustabout before attending Baylor University from which he graduated in 1980 with an accounting degree. While an undergraduate at Baylor, Terry met Gail Woodson, and their relationship soon blossomed into a loving marriage of 32 years. In that time, they raised two daughters – Kelsey, 24, and Jillian, 13.

Terry settled with Gail in Houston and enjoyed a successful career in banking and finance that spanned over 25 years. Beginning at University Savings & Loan in 1983, Terry advanced through several positions of increasing scope and responsibility to ultimately serve as a Vice President & Senior Client Service Manager with JP Morgan Chase Bank and, later, Bank of New York.

Terry retired in 2008 and devoted the past six years to his responsibilities as spouse and father, anchoring the whirlwind activity of the three women central to his life. He did everything from helping with homework to entertaining law firm clients. In his remaining time, Terry immersed himself in service to his church; in transforming a 30-year-old house in Estes Park, Colorado, into a dream vacation home for his family; and in the pursuit of life’s many great adventures.

Terry was an active member of River Oaks Baptist Church, and served as deacon and member of numerous church committees. He also served as a member of the Board of Trustees of River Oaks Baptist School. He was an active supporter of the Christian Community Service Center, regularly volunteering at the Gethsemane Food Pantry and other CCSC programs such as Jingle Bell Express.

Terry was first a gourmand and later, to the great benefit of his family and friends, a gourmet chef. He took a one-year break from his banking career in 1998 to study culinary arts at the Art Institute of Houston and subsequently practiced his craft to the delight of everyone who had the good fortune to sample his cooking. With French cuisine as the foundation of his gourmet training, Terry soon became a student of other facets of French culture and capped his language studies with a month-long immersion program this past year at the Institut de Français on the French Riviera.

During all of his many years in Houston, Terry was both an aviator and an aviator-at-heart. He earned his private pilot’s license in 1985 and qualified as an aircraft dispatcher in 2012. Terry vicariously enjoyed Kelsey’s success in earning both an aviation degree and commercial pilot’s license in college. More recently, Terry returned to flying, with great enthusiasm for the opportunity to own a plane and share his joy of aviation with family and friends. He looked forward to the convenience and fun of flying between Houston and Estes Park. Terry also enjoyed hiking, fishing, and relaxing at his home in the mountains.

Terry is survived by his loving wife, Gail; his daughters, Kelsey and Jillian; his parents, Bill and Wanda Stewart of Canyon Lake, Texas; his in-laws, Lewis and Edie Woodson of Fort Gibson, Oklahoma; and his sisters-in-law, Linda Woodson and Lori Payne, and their families of Houston, Texas, and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. The family also acknowledges Terry’s love and affection for Betty Brinkley and her service as a member of the Stewarts’ household for 24 years.

Friends are cordially invited to a visitation with the family from five o’clock in the afternoon until eight o’clock in the evening on Friday, the 15th of August, in the library and grand foyer of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive in Houston.

The funeral service is to be conducted at ten o’clock in the morning on Saturday, the 16th of August, at River Oaks Baptist Church, 2300 Willowick Road in Houston, where the Rev. Martus Miley is to officiate.

The interment will follow, via an escorted cortege, at Glenwood Cemetery in Houston.