Robert
D. Stuart Jr., whose long career as a top executive for the family
business, Quaker Oats, was preceded by his founding, with a handful of
fellow Yale law students, of the America First Committee, the catalyst
for a potent and polarizing movement opposing the nation’s entry into World War II, died on May 8. He was 98.
His
son Sandy said he died of heart failure on an airplane en route to the
United States from France with his wife, Lillan. He lived in Lake
Forest, Ill.
A
scion of the founders of the Quaker Oats Company, Mr. Stuart was its
chief executive from 1966 to 1981. During that time the company
introduced flavored instant oatmeal and chewy granola bars and expanded
into the toy business, acquiring the Fisher-Price Toy Company.
When
Mr. Stuart stepped down as chairman in 1984, President Ronald Reagan
appointed him ambassador to Norway, where he served until 1989.
He
had been politically active most of his life. In September 1940, as a
24-year-old law student, he became the founding national director of
America First, a grass-roots group that until the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor sought to keep the United States from being drawn into
another world war in Europe. The group grew to more than 800,000
members, placing it among the largest antiwar organizations in American
history.
His
fellow founders, all law students, included a future president, Gerald
R. Ford; a future Supreme Court justice, Potter Stewart; the future
first director of the Peace Corps, R. Sargent Shriver; and a future
president of Yale, Kingman Brewster.
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