The first Stewart Award dinner was held in 1975. The award was established to honour an outstanding teacher in the local secondary school community, and was a recognition of Dr. Finlay G. Stewart's long time interest in education. The Douglas W. Turnbull Award was added, to recognize a long time educator and elder of St. Andrew's who had died untimely in 1982. In 2004, a third award was added, the Grant R. MacDonald Award, to recognize the long time commitmnt to secondary schppl education of another minister of S. Andrew's.

The Stewart Award is presented to recognize the excellence of an educator. It is a tribute to a man who was an educator and epitomized excellence. .

Very Rev. Finlay G. Stewart had a deep faith in God and his fellow man, a zest for living and a zest for giving, and a lifelong respect and concern for education. His education did not come easily. He was born in 1910 on the homestead near Dutton where his grandfather had settled on reaching Canada from Macrahanish, Scotland.

As a boy his ambition was to become a minister. The problem was to get enough money to take the arts and theology courses. After attending what was then called Normal School, he taught at Dutton and Ottawa. Besides his school work, he taught at a business college in the evenings and also took extra-mural courses. In four years he accumulated enough funds to go to university.

Typically, he excelled at athletics and in 1928 was offered a place on the Canadian Olympic team; but he was busy teaching and could not afford to take the time off. He attended the University of Western Ontario and then was graduated from Knox College of the University of Toronto in 1933 and was ordained.

His first ministry was at Drummond Hill Church, Niagara Falls, and then in 1938 he was called to St. Andrew's Church, Kitchener. In the 38 years that followed he built a faltering congregation to the largest Presbyterian congregation in Canada and became a community legend in his own lifetime.

During the Second World War he was for five years a chaplain of a unit of the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and was decorated for his services in north-west Europe.

He served on what was then the Kitchener-Waterloo High School Board for 16 years and during his three years as chairman he led the board through the first stages of what was to be a mammoth expansion of secondary school facilities. In 1955 Knox College awarded him a Doctor of Divinity degree, and the following year he was elected Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, the highest post the church can offer.

His community service was so many-faceted that the groups he served and assisted sometimes seemed a roll call of Kitchener-Waterloo causes. He was ready to respond to any challenge he felt worthy, and he met every challenge with the same excellent service.

He was named Kitchener-Waterloo Citizen of the Year in 1970, and in October, 1974, that respect and affection was underscored by an unprecedented community tribute by 1,000 persons on his retirement from the St. Andrew's ministry.

It was recognition of a life lived with excellence, just as this medallion is a tribute to excellence.

Doug Turnbull was born in Michigan but the Turnbull family later moved to Delhi and Doug grew up in that small Ontario town. In 1944, at the age of 18, he enlisted in the Canadian Army and served until 1946.

Doug then attended the University of Western Ontario, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1950.

His university training had prepared him for work in industry and he came to Kitchener-Waterloo to work at the Uniroyal plant as a chemist. However, in 1962 Doug, who by then, had been promoted to the position of assistant sales manager, decided to become a teacher. He had already been involved in the Christian education program at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church for several years and had found this activity very satisfying.

After beginning his teaching career in the Science department at Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate and Vocational School, Doug became associate head of department and then head of department at that school. In 1970 he was appointed vice-principal of Grand River Collegiate. Doug later served as vice-principal at Cameron Heights and Forest Heights Collegiates. In each of these schools his ability and his friendliness were appreciated by all.

In 1981 Doug became the principal of Forest Heights C.I. In this position, his deep commitment, his personal values; and his sincere enthusiasm earned him the loyalty and lave of students and teachers.

The outstanding sense of responsibility and caring that Doug brought to his professional tasks was matched by his very evident love for his wife Marg, for his daughter Elizabeth, and for his family and friends.

To St. Andrew's Church Doug provided many years of leadership as a Christian educator and as an elder. To the community he devoted much time and energy as a member of the Kitchener-Waterloo Kiwanis Club and later as a member of the Waterloo Rotary Club. Two special interests of his were the Waterloo Regional Cardiac Rehabilitation Foundation, of which he was the founding chairman, and the local Canada Manpower Student Job Centre.

It was characteristic of Doug, as it is of Marg, that he developed a wide range of friends wherever he went. These many friends have always been warmly received at the Turnbull home, whether home has been on Margaret Avenue or on Georgian Bay.

There is no doubt that the excellence that Doug Turnbull displayed throughout his life sprang from his love of God, of his family and from his concern for all of us. His professional and personal life can, serve as a model for every one of us.