The Sacramento Bee,
Sacramento, California
Tuesday, June 2, 1998
Page B5
Dr. Gary Stewart Was Family Planning Pioneer, Started Fertility Clinic
Dr. Gary K. Stewart, a pioneer in family planning in California and a local leader in starting a fertility clinic, died suddenly Sunday.

Dr. Stewart, 57, had a massive heart attack in Boston, where he had recently moved. He was planning to see his son, Matthew, graduate from Harvard this week.

"More than any other individual in California, he helped set the agenda for a progressive and balanced policy for public family planning services," said Dr. Jane Boggess, Chief of the State Office of Family Planning.

Dr. Art McCausland, a friend and fellow physician, remembered that Dr. Stewart was always interested in family planning issues.

Dr. Stewart worked with the World Health Organization in the Population Section, McCausland said. "They would send him to different places in the world. He went to India and taught them sterilization techniques."

Locally, he was Medical Director for Planned Parenthood of Sacramento Valley from 1974 to 1996 and started the Northern California Fertility Center in the early 1980s, McCausland said.

"He was a pioneer in this area in starting a fertility clinic," McCausland said. "He was the first in this entire region outside of San Francisco to start in vitro fertilization."

Tom Kring, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs in the Clinton administration, worked with Dr. Stewart in the 1970s. Kring recalled: "During Gary's time at Planned Parenthood, the agency expanded by providing ever-increasing clinical services both in Sacramento County and in several rural counties, offering sterilization services for both males and females, providing pregnancy termination services, training interns from UC Davis and providing mentoring for the first family planning nurse practitioners to be utilized in Northern California."

Dr. Stewart was born in Alberta, Canada, to Karless (Curly) and Della Stewart. He graduated from the University of Utah, School of Medicine, and served as staff physician in the United States Peace Corps in Malawi and Kenya. He did his residency in obstetrics/gynecology at the University of California, San Francisco.

Before moving to Sacramento, he served as the state director of maternal health and family planning services from 1973-1974. He was in private practice in Sacramento until 1996 and was an Adjunct Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1989-1997. He also taught family practice residents at Sutter Hospital, McCausland said.

"He was an outstanding physician," McCausland said. "He not only cared about his patients but also about the health and welfare of people in general, both in America and internationally."

His marriages to June Rodeback Halvas and Felicia Hance Stewart both ended in divorce.

In addition to his parents and son Matthew, Dr. Stewart is survived by his wife, Dr. Lynn Borgatta; sons, Wayne and Mike of Salt Lake City; daughters, Tami Barlow and Kathryn Stewart of Sacramento; brothers, Cal, Hugh and Randy of Alberta; and five grandchildren.

Memorial services are to be held June 13, though the time and location have yet to be determined.