New Scholarship to Support Florida Atlantic University Science Students

Florida Atlantic University received a $780,000 gift to establish the W. William Stewart Science Scholarship Fund. The endowed fund will support undergraduates in the Department of Biological Sciences at the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science.

The gift was made by Bill Stewart of Deerfield Beach on behalf of his father W. William “Bill” Stewart, who was a well-known member in the local community. He owned the historic Riverview Restaurant, which was located at what is now Sullivan Park. Stewart lived in Highland Beach until 2016 and then Deerfield until his death in 2023.

“We are extremely grateful to the Stewart family for their commitment to student learning at the College of Science,” said Dean Valery E. Forbes, Ph.D. “Gifts like these ensure that more students have the opportunity to pursue science careers and realize their dreams.”

The scholarship will support a student’s four-year journey at the University, providing $30,000 annually. A recipient must be a biological sciences major as a freshman, Florida high school graduate, and have a strong academic record.

“The scholarship was created in keeping with my father’s spirit of generosity, his interest in science and the value he placed on education,” said his son Bill Stewart. “Our hope is that it will provide an opportunity for students, who might not otherwise have it, to obtain a degree and pursue an area of science.”

The elder Stewart was born in Wheeling, West Virginia and moved to South Florida, where he attended Pompano Beach High School. He obtained a chemistry degree at Ohio Wesleyan University and worked as an industrial chemist in the northeast after serving in the Korean War. In 1962, he and his family moved back to Florida after his uncle died and left him the restaurant, which had a colorful past, serving as a secret gambling outpost in the 1940s.

Stewart managed the restaurant until the 1990s, while maintaining a lifelong interest in science. He was an avid reader of medical and scientific advancements and enjoyed the natural world, traveling and photographing animals and scenery from different continents.

The younger Stewart, also a scientist, earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in biology and worked for the medical product company, Becton, Dickinson and Company, during his career. He recalls watching the Florida Atlantic campus grow over the years. As a teenager, he played tennis on campus and even took a microbiology class during the summer. He chose to fund the scholarship at Florida Atlantic based on his family’s history and attachment to the area.

“My father was definitely a South Florida native in heart and mind,” said Stewart.