Stuart William Stein was born in New York City on November 29, 1929, and grew up in Queens. His parents were Herman Jay Stein, a Jewish immigrant from Poland, and Tillie Berger Stein, a first generation American of Eastern European descent. He had two older siblings, Anita and Danny, as well many aunts and uncles and dozens of cousins who lived nearby.

As a child, Stu was afflicted with polio and osteomyelitis (a serious bone disease that was cured by the advent of penicillin). He would undergo four surgeries during his youth, after which he was hospitalized for extended periods of time. These difficult experiences helped cultivate in him an incredible sense of patience and a deep empathy for others, two qualities that became hallmarks of his personality.

Stu's father owned a lumberyard called Steinboro, which had the motto: "A board, a nail, a can of paint, makes many a home look new that ain’t." Stu and his brother Danny helped out at the family business, and at one point they drove lumber movers around on lanes that would become the runways at JFK airport. Upon recalling this, Stu remarked, "In a sense, I have been building ever since."

After attending high school at Brooklyn Tech, Stu became the first in his family to graduate from college,receiving a Bachelors degree in Architecture in 1952, followed by a Master of City Planning degree in 1954, both from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In 1952 while still a student, Stu attended a political gathering. There, he got his first taste of how exciting politics could be when a hush came over the crowd and a young senator from Boston, John F. Kennedy, took to the stage

It was in Boston that Stu met Sandra Ginsburg, a graduate of the University of Chicago, whose roommate was from the same home town as Stu's roommate at the time. On their first date, Stu and Sandy immediately clicked. They spent the whole night talking, until the wee hours of the morning, and remained best friends from that day forward. On May 22, 1955, they were married, and they would continue to delight in each other’s company for another 59 wonderful years together.

Stu was literally blown into his first job by two hurricanes, Carol and Edna, which devastated the New England coast in August and September of 1954. As a result, Rhode Island's State Planning Office was in great need of planners. Stu had worked in the Statehouse in Providence during graduate school, supervised by one of his professors. So he was asked to return after the hurricanes to work on planning there.

Stu's first professional work fortuitously combined planning and politics, setting the stage for the rest of his professional and civic life. His office at the Statehouse was just upstairs from the Governor's office, and he quickly became fascinated with the political dramas unfolding on the floor below. "Rhode Island politics were dominated by the Italian and Irish, who both had a wonderful way with words, he recalled. "I would eat my lunch in the balcony of the legislative chambers just to listen to them. Stu also wrote speeches for Governor Dennis Roberts, who later became a principal campaigner for Senator John F. Kennedy when he ran for President in 1960.

In 1958, Stu left state government to set up a private consulting firm in partnership with Lachlan Blair, the former head of the state planning division and deputy planner of Providence. Blair & Stein Associates concentrated on urban renewal and master planning for small communities. At the time, Brown University, located on a hill above Providence, was trying to expand into one of the most historic districts in the country, near where Roger Williams had landed, replete with important landmarks and beautiful old mansions. Blair & Stein Associates drew up a master plan for the district, called the College Hill Urban Renewal Project, which was adopted by the city and helped launch the historic preservation movement in the US. 

In a Cornell memorial booklet, Stu’s colleagues wrote, "At a time when historic buildings were typically razed and replaced with new ones, the College Hill plan called for their retention and rehabilitation, with sensitive in-filling where new buildings were needed. It became a model for preservation efforts in many places. This effort reflected what became a recurring theme in Stu's work, a willingness to innovate in ways that excited and united communities, rather than fomenting conflict and fear of change.”

Blair & Stein Associates prospered, and the firm went on to open branch offices in Washington, DC, Binghamton, NY and Syracuse, NY.

Stu and Sandy's first three children  — Tom, Peter and Katie — were born in Providence, RI, between 1959 and 1962. In January of 1963, they moved to Ithaca, NY, where their fourth child, Jenny, was born in 1964.

Stu was so proud of his young family that he could not resist inviting house guests to view the kids while they were sleeping in their bedrooms. Sandy could not stop him from turning on the lights, which often woke them up in the process —  something that both annoyed and amused her about Stu. Having a house full of children was a dream fulfilled for both of them.

Though a natural teacher, Stu did not set out to become a professor, but a chance encounter would change the course of his life. By the early 60's, Stu's former mentor at MIT, Burnham Kelly, had become the Dean of Cornell's College of Architecture. He ran into Stu at a convention in Detroit, and over breakfast, convinced him to join the world of academia. Stu's background in both design and planning made him a natural choice to bridge the architecture and planning departments at Cornell. So,"how I got to Ithaca is somewhat ironic and unplanned," recalled Stu — ironic, because Cornell was the only university to which he applied that had rejected him as a student.

A few years after arriving in Ithaca, Stu was asked by the city planning board to help save the community's decaying downtown. So, together with three other planning professors, he developed a plan that re-routed traffic around the downtown area, creating a people-oriented, open-air pedestrian mall, now known as the Ithaca Commons. At the time, critics found the plan controversial, claiming it would reduce business downtown. However, it had the opposite effect. To this day, Ithaca is one of the few communities in Upstate New York to have a thriving city center.

In 1966, motivated to help keep their neighborhood school open, Stu and Sandy served as co-presidents of East Hill Elementary School's Parent Teacher’s Association. Their efforts, along with that of many other parents and teachers, were successful. Over time, the school began pioneering an alternative education program that would later receive national recognition. All four of the Stein kids graduated from East Hill and benefitted from its unique approach to cultivating independent thought and a sense of social responsibility.

The Stein household, located just a block from the school, became a favorite hang out for neighborhood kids. Stu also had many international students who visited - from Ethiopia, Thailand, Venezuela, South Africa - including some who lived with the family for a short while. With so many guests and visitors, all the children, several cats and a dog, it was bustling household.

Although Stu was busy building his career, he always made time for family dinners, as well as weekend activities with the kids while Sandy worked on her PhD thesis. A nightly ritual involved going around the dinner table with each family member sharing the highlights of their day.

Stu made an effort to involve his children in his public life, bringing them along with him to important political events and to greet visiting dignitaries. He made a habit of bringing one of his kids along whenever he would campaign from door to door. During election season, the family would gather around the dining room table to stuff envelopes, sometimes for a campaign Stu was running in, and other times for a candidate Stu believed in.

Stu used to say that most people avoid getting involved in political battles until an issue hits close to home. Such was the situation that launched Stu’s legislative career. When a historic mansion located right next door was slated to be demolished and replaced with student apartments, Stu led a neighborhood campaign to stop it. "We had to take the City Board of Zoning Appeals to court," he recalled. "And we won!" Due to this victory, he became a natural candidate to run for a vacated seat on the Ithaca City Council.

Like so many of the significant junctures in Stu’s life, the launch of his political career was a matter of chance. "The year was 1972,” he said, "and as political pundits will recall, it was generally not a good year for Democrats due in large part to the presence of Senator George McGovern as the party’s Presidential candidate. However, I ran in the student district of Ithaca, and the students voted overwhelmingly for McGovern, and then voted for me. Although I campaigned heavily, I got the same percentage of the vote as George McGovern. That’s why I still jokingly say to this day that I am the only politician who rode into office on the coattails of George McGovern."

Stu's small victory tipped the scales for the City of Ithaca’s government, which had long been dominated by the Republican party. Now, of the 14 City Council members, seven were Democrats. With the Democratic Mayor, there was a new Democratic majority. From that time on, more and more Democrats were elected to Ithaca’s City Council, and it has remained Democratic to this day.

After two years on the Council, Stu went on to hold other positions in Ithaca government, including Chairman of the City Planning Board, member of the Board of Public Works, as well as a position with the Urban Renewal Agency. Then, in 1982, Stu was elected to the Tompkins County legislature, where he would continue to serve for 20 years, winning five consecutive elections.

As he continued his teaching at Cornell and his involvement in local government, Stu worked to convince the university to become more involved in the community. It was his strong belief that community service is one of the three most important functions of a university, the other two being teaching and research.

For 31 years, Stu served as a faculty member in Cornell’s College of Architecture, Art and Planning. At different times he held appointments as Chairman of the Department of Urban Planning and Development, Director of the Undergraduate Program of Urban and Regional Studies (where his granddaughter Rachel is a member of the class of 2018), and Associate Dean of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning.

As a professor, Stu made a conscious effort to transfer his enthusiasm and ideals to his students. As a result, he became a beloved mentor and friend to many. Over the years, some students dedicated their theses to him, which he considered a great honor. One in particular thanked him for conveying the belief that in the field of urban planning, people’s needs are more important than academic fireworks. His colleagues wrote: "Students benefitted from Stu’s unique combination of creativity and ethical idealism while learning to master the best professional practices in the planning arena. He became a master of connecting students with local groups and communities which needed assistance, and connecting those planning efforts to emerging initiatives at state and federal levels.”

Former student Tania Werbizky, speaking on behalf of Historic Ithaca, called Stu “a true gentleman, an inspiration and a preservation hero,” remarking that he was “the best kind of teacher and public servant: he led by example.” She added, "because he taught thousands of students – many of whom went on to careers in historic preservation – his impact will be felt for generations."

Stu enjoyed spending his sabbaticals in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Caracas, Venezuela, where he did consulting work and assisted other universities in building programs that would remain long after his departure. His family joined him on these adventures and benefited from rich cross-cultural experiences, while making many lifelong friends.

After retiring and becoming a Professor Emeritus 1993, Stu put his full focus on politics and community service.

When Stu retired from Cornell in 1993, he welcomed the opportunity to become more involved in local government. He had the rare honor of being unanimously voted in as Chairman of the county legislature by his fellow board members – Republicans and Democrats alike – and he would serve in that capacity between 1993 and 1996. These were some of his happiest and most impactful years of public service. His leadership ushered in a productive era of bipartisan cooperation. He fostered consensus, according to his colleagues, "by understanding seemingly incompatible positions and forging from them a creative synthesis differing parties could accept.”

One of the highlights of his accomplishments on the board was introducing the hotel room tax which helped invigorate the arts and tourism in Tompkins County. The Ithaca/Tompkins County Convention & Visitors Bureau describes Stu as being "instrumental in subsequent 'Home Rule' legislation that ensured the new tax revenue would benefit residents and visitors alike by supporting a vibrant infrastructure of festival events, arts organizations and museums while marketing the area to travelers.” Stu also helped establish and chaired the Strategic Tourism Planning Board (STPB), whose purpose was to stimulate economic development by guiding the use of room tax funds. STPB board member and local innkeeper Scott Wiggins describes Stu as "an amazing visionary and team leader for what is today a robust and extensive tourism program in Tompkins County.” He recalls, "When Stu first proposed adding an additional 2% to the room tax to support product development, my constituency – the innkeepers – were strongly opposed. Increases in taxes always depressed prices, and this was going to be the beginning of a slippery slope. But Stu’s ideas and enthusiasm and perseverance quickly transformed my thinking – and many others – to the benefits of a more robust tourism product. And what an amazingly rich and comprehensive room tax program we have today. Business is healthy for tourism businesses of all types, and the range of tourism grant programs that benefit our community are inspiring – beautification grants, capital grants, stabilization grants, development grants, new tourism initiative grants, marketing grants, festival grants, workforce development grants – have all grown from Stu’s ideas of what a tourism program could be."

No matter how passionately Stu felt about many issues, he excelled at remaining calm and even-tempered at all times. On rare occasion he became publicly emotional about an issue, which he would immediately regret, and according to Sandy, “never would allow it to happen again for another 10 years.” However, there is one situation where he never regretted expressing his emotions, and that was his impassioned plea to his colleagues to combat inequality by amending Tompkins County's Fair Practices Act so it would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. At the time, during the early ‘90s, this was a controversial position. But Stu’s powerful statement of support, along with the credibility he had earned with his colleagues, helped the measure pass by only one vote. This is just one in many ways Stu was ahead of his time, and the local LGBT community honored him for his critical role in in achieving an important milestone.

Stu looked for opportunities to set his community apart from others. One of his pet projects toward the end of his legislative career was creating a Poet Laureate position for Tompkins County. While the US had a Poet Laureate and many states did as well, having a Poet Laureate for a county was rare if not unheard of at the time the position was created here.

Barbara Mink, Stu’s successor as the Chairman of the county legislator, considered him a mentor. “I always thought of the county board as my urban family with all that that entails,” she said, "and Stuart was certainly the father figure. I think he played that role because he made everybody better by working with him.” She added, “He was a spirited but gentle man, a consensus builder, who was not afraid of big ideas or the work it took to make them real. His focus on economic development that included support for the arts in addition to bringing in new businesses and jobs helped make Tompkins County a leader in central New York. I remember our 12 years together on the county board as filled with energy, vision and humor.”

Looking back at the end of a long political career, Stu observed that local government had become more transparent and open, and that public participation in the process had steadily grown, resulting in a more informed and engaged citizenry. This gave him a sense of optimism, as he deeply believed in a government “of the people, by the people and for the people,” and held that "there really is a place in society for government, in partnership with the private sector, to help people.”

Although Stu retired from the County Board in 2002, he would continue to devote much of his time over the remaining 12 years of his life to public service. He co-founded and for many years maintained a leadership role in the Municipal Electric & Gas Alliance (MEGA), a non-profit organization that enables municipalities to band together to get favorable energy prices from electric and gas companies. "In these tough economic times for local governments,” he explained, "saving money is the same as saving the hard earned money of our taxpayers.”

Stu also remained active on the Tompkins County Strategic Tourism Planning Board, which he helped found and on which he served for many years as its Chair. Just two weeks before his death, he led a committee meeting for his tourism colleagues.

Stu was proud to serve as Chairman of the New York State Board for Historic Preservation, and also as a member of the State Parks Council, the Urban Cultural Park Advisory Board, the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor Commission, the Committee on National Register Nominations, the commission for the restoration of the New York State Capitol building, and the Review Panel for the New York State Council on the Arts, Architecture and Environmental Arts Division.

Throughout his long career, Stu was grateful to receive recognition by his colleagues and many awards for his service. Here are some highlights:

In 1988, he was elected as a Delegate for the Dukakis/Ferraro presidential ticket and attended the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, Georgia.

In 1995, he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award from Cornell’s Community and Rural Development Institute for his leadership and vision helping students solve community problems and for his active role as an elected official in fostering community development.

In 2000, he was inducted as a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners.

In 2001, he received the Tompkins County Community Action Award in recognition of his years of effort in fighting poverty in Tompkins County.

In 2008, he received the Howard Cogan Tourism Award from the Chamber of Commerce “in recognition of more than 25 years of service to Ithaca and Tompkins County and for providing vision and leadership to help make our community a vibrant and dynamic tourism destination.”

In 2014, just five days before his death, he received the Community Arts Partnership’s “Friend of the Arts” award recognizing his significant contributions to the growth of arts and culture in Tompkins County.

Stu and Sandy celebrated 59 happy years of marriage just a month before he died. He was grateful for his remarkable partnership with Sandy, and once joked that it made sense Sandy ran Cornell's Freshman Orienatation program because she had spent so much time in their own lives together orienting him. Indeed, Stu relied on Sandy as a sounding board throughout his long and multi-faceted career. Beginning with their first date, they spent many nights deeply engaged in lengthy conversations about the issues in their lives, and in their community, benefitting from each other’s wisdom and perspective. They were a real team, supporting one another through many challenges and opportunities.

Along with Sandy, Stu found great joy in spending time with his four children and seven grandchildren, all of whom made him very proud.

Stu and Sandy’s son Tom resides in Gloucester, MA. He is a professor at Berklee College of Music and a professional musician and entrepreneur.

Their son Peter is a staff attorney for the Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. He and his wife, Jill, live in Camp Hill, PA, and have five children, born between 1993 and 2007: Avi, Rachel, Tova, Chloe, and little Stuart.

Their daughter Catherine (Katie) is a certified holistic health practitioner with a background in journalism and Japanese studies. She and her husband, Frithjof Hungnes, reside in Oslo, Norway, with their twin children, Maya and Matthias, born in 1999.

Their daughter Jenny and her partner, James LaVeck, reside in Ithaca, NY, where they work together as documentary filmmakers and also run a charitable non-profit organization dedicated to promoting social justice and compassion for all beings.

Stu also loved spending time with his extended family, which includes many nieces and nephews on both his and Sandy’s side. He maintained longterm friendships with a number of former students, some of whom are considered honorary members of the Stein family.

Stu’s favorite pastime during his retirement was gardening. Every year he planted a wide variety of flowers and shrubs on his and Sandy's three-acre property, which became his canvas upon which he created beautiful living artworks. He also planted a few of his favorite trees, including a dogwood, a hydrangea tree, and a Japanese maple, and enjoyed seeing them grow into maturity.

Stu also had a passion for travel. He and Sandy were fortunate to spend time, sometimes for an extended period, in many South American and European countries, as well as China, Japan and Thailand. In their 70’s, they made a trip to Latvia and Lithuania, countries from which some of their ancestors had immigrated. Their love of international travel was passed on to their children. Their daughter Katie lived in Japan for a few years, and then married a Norwegian man and settled down in Oslo. Their son Tom lived in Israel and Holland during his 20’s. As a teenager, their son Peter lived with a Venezuelan family for a year. He also spent a summer during college in Israel. Jenny and Katie accompanied Stu and Sandy on Stu’s 1976 sabbatical, attending high school in Caracas, Venezuela for a semester, and traveling home through several Central American countries.

Stu was a prolific photographer. He took tens of thousands of photos and slides, documenting every moment of his children’s growing years, and all the many trips that he and Sandy and the family took together. He also had collections of slides about historic communities he had visited. He particularly enjoyed making photographic studies of subjects that change over time. For example, he annually documented his children’s first day of school, setting them up at the same location each time. He photographed the large Maple tree outside his picture window throughout each changing season. And he had a series of photos about the changing view from his office window at Cornell. He had a keen sense of the value of history, and it was a passion of his to capture it as he lived, observed, and appreciated it.