Our country, the state of Maine and Westport Island lost a very special man earlier this month. Bruce Stedman a patriot, scholar, gentleman, soldier, singer, orator, diplomat, husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and friend died February 2 at the age of 92.

His impressive career in the United Nations is known nationwide. Stedman joined the United Nations as it was forming in 1946. He served on three political missions in the Middle East; Palestine in 1948, Gaza in 1957-1958, and later in 1958 in Amman, Jordan.

From 1968 until 1975 he was the UN's representative in Kenya and Ethiopia. His final assignment was as Deputy Executive Director of the UN Environment Program, as it was being created in Nairobi.

He died at his home on Westport Island overlooking the Sheepscot River with his wife Susan at his side.

Early years

He graduated from Harvard University magna cum laude in 1942. He also was awarded the a Sheldon Traveling Fellowship. This award provides students for one academic year of travel, study, and/or research outside the United States.

The intent of this fellowship program is to provide Harvard graduate students with the opportunity to spend an academic year abroad.

In return the student must write a 500 word essay on their travel. Since it was during World War II, Stedman’s choices were limited, so he selected Mexico.

In order for Stedman to take advantage of this award he had to have a deferment from the draft board. He knew that he couldn’t ask for a year, so he asked for four months.

His father had U.S. Vice President Henry Wallace write a letter to the draft board in Silver Springs, Md., asking for a deferment. It apparently cut no ice with the draft board. However, during the hearing, a member of the draft board recognized Stedman, and said, “I know you, you sang in my church.” According to Stedman’s second wife Susie, Stedman always contributed his deferment to that gentleman.

After his trip to Mexico, Stedman when to officer’s training school and became a Naval officer, serving on a destroyer escort in the Pacific during World War II as a lieutenant commander.

While on the ship, he received magazines from home reporting on the United Nations being formed. According to Susan, Stedman got the idea this organization could do more for peace than fighting in wars. He said that if he were to return home from his tour of duty in the Pacific he wanted to work for the U.N. He was not interested in the peacetime Navy.

After returning home, he met with U.N. Director David Vaughn. Stedman wore his uniform to the interview; apparently Stedman outranked Vaughn in the military and Vaughn kept calling Stedman “sir.”

“He didn’t know that Stedman was ready to shine his shoes with his hair for a job with the U.N.,” Susan Stedman said with a chuckle. “Thirty-three years and three months later, he retired from the organization.”

Retirement

He retired in 1977 and returned to the U.S. with his first wife Ruth, and their four sons, John, Michael, James and Matthew. Son Michael was lost at sea in 1984. He was captain of a fishing boat the Windblown that went down off Rhode Island.

Ruth Stedman died in 1991. In 1993 he married Susan Goodwillie, a former U.N. colleague. The couple moved to Westport Island in 1994 into a house that was built in 1774.

They added a large bedroom to the house, which features a sliding glass door looking out over the Sheepscot River, a view that Stedman really enjoyed, according to Susan Stedman.  It also gave the couple a view of the large vegetable garden they grew every summer and donated to the local food pantries.

The couple loved to sing; they sang a Tunisian love song at their wedding.

At age 74, Stedman became active on the board of the United Nations Association of Maine and Lincoln County Democrats, and served the town of Westport Island on the planning board. He and his wife jointly taught courses at the Mid-Coast Senior College.

Stedman read three newspapers: the Wiscasset Newspaper, the Times Record and the International Herald Tribune, the global edition of the New York Times.

Remembrances

Stedman’s eldest son John Stedman remembers the most treasured hour of the day: when the family was young and gathered before dinner. It was there that days were debriefed and stories told. He remembers his dad as a man of routines and one who valued earthy simplicity.  

He had the eye of a critic, the ear of a conductor and the heart of a romantic poet, according to his oldest son. He fiercely defended the U.N. development and democratic ideals to the most extreme critics.  

His granddaughter Casey wrote to him in a letter, “I love you so much! You are an inspiration to me. You have done and seen more than I could ever imagine.

“The time I spent with you is more valuable than you could ever know. Your stories and companionship and love are overwhelming. Watching silent movies, playing cribbage, and staying in your house were amazing.

“You are so special, so important – so influential to me. I have a traveler's heart, a lover's heart, all inherited from you. I will never settle. Never stop looking to the future, and never stop examining the past … because of you.”

Al Niese, a retired Episcopal priest now living in Woolwich, was invited by Stedman to join the United Nations Association Maine Chapter. Niese said they traveled together to chapter meetings and it was a fascinating ride.  

The most recent memory of Stedman was in 2011 at the Woolwich Christmas gathering in early December at the Nequasset meeting house. “I accompanied him on the chapel’s 125-year-old pump organ. Bruce had a magnificent tenor voice, clear, natural and strong right up to almost the day he died,” Niese said. “I introduced him as the retired Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, and that he had done more for peace on earth and goodwill among its entire people than anyone I knew.

“He sang 'O Holy Night' in French and in English to a spellbound audience ranging from small children to a couple of World War II veterans.

“Only a few years ago, the Maine Model United National Conference at the University of Maine asked Bruce to give the keynote address. He spoke to an audience of 450 high school students and 50 college students.

“I also invited Bruce to speak to a congregation of a church in New Jersey that I was invited back to. He spoke with the vigor and power of Sir Winston Churchill. Bruce reminded me of Churchill at lot, he was just trimmer and lacked the cigar,” Niese said. “A word to describe Bruce is 'ebullient.'”

Susan Stedman received condolences from several of her husband's U.N. colleagues.

After working two years in Iran as a junior professional officer (JPO), Denis Halliday, worked directly with Stedman. “It was both terrifying and wonderful,” Halliday said. “He was demanding in a way that ensured one’s best effort.

“He was overworked and stressed, yet he made time for junior people, produced that twinkle and smile that totally disarmed one.”

Simon Maxwell, who became the director of the international think tank in the United Kingdom, wrote, “What a good life Bruce lived; busy, committed, honest and honorable; a real leader who touched many of our lives and left us feeling inspired.”

Jean-Claude is a Haitian who became the Chief of Staff to the Secretary-General of the U.N. He wrote, “I was very fortunate to have had Bruce as my first boss when I joined in early 1962. He was instrumental in the decision to send me to Tunisia on my first field assignment. Bruce and Brian Urquhart are the two U.N. officials who the greatest influence on me. They had in common a great intellect, integrity, values shaped from their WWII experience and an abiding commitment to the organization.”

Stedman’s last day

Stedman was known throughout his life for his sense of humor, quick wit and the twinkle in his eye. He never lost those traits –  not even at the end.

A few hours before Stedman died, he was lying in his bed near the sliding glass door in their bedroom. Beside the bed was a display of several photos on a large bookcase shelf. They were photos of his children, grandchildren and other family members.

His wife picked up a photo of a young boy holding a fish in his hand; she asked him if he knew who the boy was in the photo. “It’s me,” he said.

“Did you catch that fish?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Was that your first catch?”

“No, Ruthie was my first catch and you were my second,” he said, with that familiar twinkle in his eye.  

“With that I bent down and gave him a big kiss,” Susan Stedman said.

Charlotte Boynton can be reached at 207-844-4632 or cboynton@wiscassetnewspaper.com.