Dr Duncan Stewart retires as President and Trustee.
At the recent Board meeting, our President, Duncan Stewart, retired after many years of service. As a great grandson of our founder, Sir Halley, he has done much to maintain links to the original ethos and has written the definitive guide to Sir Halley: click here.
Trustees celebrated the huge contribution he has made to the Trust since 1986 and all agreed that he has been a great pleasure to work with. Whilst not the longest serving trustee (that record goes to Professor Harold Stewart who served for 51 years), he is the only trustee who has also been a grantee, Vice-Chair, Chair and President.
John Wyatt, trustee and Chair of the Medical sub-committee which Duncan was a member of, paid tribute to Duncan. He has known him for over 25 years since he joined the Trust himself and has personally benefited hugely from his support. He sees him as a “real colleague”, someone who has stood by him throughout, and shared the blame wherever necessary! In his view Duncan “encapsulates many of the virtues of this unusual Trust, in his humility, friendliness, genuine humanitarian purpose, openness to new ideas, humour and practicality”.
Duncan replied to say “I am delighted that the Trust is in better shape than ever” and he has much enjoyed the high quality of discussions at sub-committee and Board meetings with his fellow trustees over the years. He remains eternally grateful to Sir Halley, for giving him the pleasure of helping to distribute £1million a year to wonderful projects and making great friendships along the way.
Trustees joined the Chair, Theresa Bartlett, in wishing him a much-deserved retirement. He will be much missed on the Board. His daughter, Amy Holcroft, remains as a trustee, retaining strong links to Sir Halley, along with the other family trustees.