Stewart William Bainum was born June 10, 1919 in Detroit, the son of Emma Leisure and Charles Stewart Bainum. He had two younger brothers, Irvin and Robert, and one sister, June. At 17, rising from humble beginnings and unable to pay his tuition at Mount Vernon Academy, Stewart hitchhiked from Cincinnati to Washington, DC – with a cardboard suitcase in hand and $3 in his pocket. Determined to pay his tuition, he landed a job as a plumber’s helper. Saving his money, he returned to Mount Vernon Academy and graduated in 1938.
After graduation he spent a year at Washington Missionary College (now Washington Adventist University), where he met the love of his life, Jane Goyne Bainum. They married in 1941 and raised four children – Barbara, Stewart, Roberta and Bruce.
Stewart was an entrepreneur in both the business and philanthropic worlds. At the age of 21, Stewart became a licensed master plumber. To earn extra money, he drove a taxi at night, and on weekends sold watermelons out of the back of his truck by the side of the road. By the age of 24, he had saved enough to start a plumbing business. In time, he began developing houses and small apartment buildings which propelled him into the cornerstones of his career—hotels and nursing centers.
While Stewart prospered, he never forgot what it was like to struggle. In 1968, he turned his philanthropic attention to providing educational opportunities for underserved children through the Commonweal Foundation. Stewart believed that it was better to give a hand up than a hand out and this led him to focus on providing children with a quality education. This part of his legacy lives on through his children and grandchildren’s leadership of the Foundation.
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