John M. Stuart

BELGRADE – John M. Stuart, 85, passed away peacefully at his home in Belgrade on July 21, 2025, following a long illness.

John was born in Belgrade on Nov. 29, 1939, the son of Dorothy Stuart, and was raised by his grandmother, Mina Yeaton Stuart at the family home in Belgrade Depot. He attended Belgrade schools and graduated from Belgrade High School in 1958. He often joked that he finished in the top 10 of his class, of 11 students.

At the urging of his Belgrade High School principal and math teacher, Harold Stevens, John defied conventional wisdom of the day by leaving Maine to attend Tri-State College in Indiana where he enrolled in the Mechanical Engineering program. He married his wife Vera on June 25, 1960 and they started a family while still in college. They were happily married for 63 years before Vera predeceased him in December 2023.

During his senior year in college, John accepted what he termed a “good offer and good fit” with M&S Manufacturing in Hudson, Mich. He was proud of his work for M&S as a mechanical engineer designing car door locks and window rollers, along with the machine tooling required to produce them, for the big three automakers during the heyday of the Detroit automotive industry.

After 10 years in Michigan, John felt the call of home and made the decision with his wife, Vera, to move the family back to Belgrade in 1973. A year after arriving in Maine, he put his engineering skills to good use as a teacher in the industrial arts program at Waterville High School where he chose to pay it forward as a teacher and mentor, especially in his mechanical drawing class that touched many students.

Following his retirement from teaching, he went on to found several companies with his son Chuck to include Belgrade Printing, Maine Envelope Company, Stuart Machinery, and Maine Cedar Products. He excelled at integrating servo motors into complex machinery and was proud of his role in obtaining a patent for an improved hot foil stamping machine used to emboss envelopes. He also worked closely with fellow Belgrade resident and friend, Skip Hammond, on several significant design and construction projects in the local area to include the new store at Hammond Lumber Company in Belgrade and the Tracy Cove development in Rome.

John also had an artistic side which led to many hours of enjoyment planning and tending to his flower and vegetable gardens (garden tours were free and frequent). He was an active volunteer in the Belgrade Fire Department for many years and was often the first to respond with Engine 63 as he lived just a couple hundred yards from the Belgrade Depot station.

John was predeceased by his wife, Vera, in December 2023 after 63 years of marriage.

He is survived by his son, Michael and daughter-in-law, Wendy Stuart of Glenburn, daughter, Sharon and son-in-law, Paul Damren of The Villages, Fla., daughter, Suzanne and John Howard of Fairbanks, Alaska, son, Chuck of Belgrade; 11 grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.

A graveside memorial service will take place on Friday July 25, at 2 p.m., at the Belgrade Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the

Belgrade Regional

Health Center

4 Clement Way

Belgrade, ME 04917-4370