2023 Distinguished Alumni Award: James B. Stewart

Award-winning author James B. Stewart ’69 has been selected as the second recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award. This award will be officially presented to James during the Night to Dream Big Gala, Friday, Nov. 3, 2023 at the Ambiance in Quincy. 

As an author, James B. Stewart ’69 has the unique ability of drawing attention to absurd or unjust situations that have previously gone unnoticed by most.  While he has spent his life honing his journalistic abilities, giving voice to the underrepresented and fighting for justice and equality have long been part of who James is. One example dates back to when James was enrolled at Quincy High School. He was a strong student who naturally excelled in his studies. While his grades were mostly comprised of As & Bs, one semester James received a C in his P.E. class. That grade, though lower than his norm, was a telling indicator of James’ character and what his future held.

During James’ time at QHS, P.E. was a mandatory class and students in the class were given t-shirts that were color-coded to their physical abilities.

“At the beginning of the year, you would do your physical fitness test, and then you were ranked and given a t-shirt that was color coded to your rank. So the top 25% of students wore blue T-shirts, the next 25% wore red and then green and finally, the lowest ranked 25% wore yellow shirts,” remembers James. “Everything in that class was based on your shirt color, almost like a class system. The blue shirts got to shower first, among other special privileges. The yellow shirts were the lowest class citizens and treated that way.”

While he was not a yellow shirt himself, this system did not sit well with James. Even in his youth, James was not one to witness such an unfairness quietly.

“I guess I was a bit of a rebel, I guess. I just did not like to see how these students were being treated. So I gathered some of my classmates from all of the different shirt colors and we protested.”

The students banded together to oppose the unjust T-shirt practice by bringing white T-shirts to wear to P.E. After a short while, the color-coding system was discontinued.

A Little Bit About James

James B. Stewart is the author of 11 books, most recently the New York Times bestseller Unscripted: the Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy (with co-author Rachel Abrams). Other books include the #1 New York Times bestsellers Den of Thieves and Blood Sport; DisneyWar, winner of the Gerald Loeb award for best business book; Blind Eye, winner of the Edgar award given by the Mystery Writers of America; and Heart of a Soldier, a saga of Sept. 11 named by Time magazine as the best non-fiction book of 2002, which was adapted as an opera in 2011 by San Francisco Opera.

James won a Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for Wall Street Journal articles on the stock market crash in 1987 and insider trading. In addition to the Edgar for Blind Eye, he has won many other journalism awards, including multiple Gerald Loeb Awards; the ABA’s Silver Gavel award; and awards from SABEW, the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, including a lifetime achievement award.

James is a graduate of DePauw University, where he was editor of the college newspaper, and Harvard Law School. After graduating he was an associate with Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York. His legal education and experience in corporate litigation have informed much of his subsequent journalism. In 1979 he became one of the first reporters for and helped launch The American Lawyer magazine.

In 1983 he joined the Wall Street Journal and in 1988 became the paper’s Page One editor. During his tenure the front page covered the Tiananmen Square showdown in Beijing; the fall of the Berlin Wall; the 1988 and 1992 Presidential elections and spotlighted the burgeoning AIDS epidemic and the accompanying rise of gay activism.

In 1992 James began a long tenure as a staff writer for the New Yorker, and several of his books began as feature stories there. His New Yorker stories, including a detailed account of the financial crisis of 2008, were National Magazine Award finalists nine times (but never won.) He also helped launch SmartMoney magazine for Dow Jones and wrote a column that appeared in both SmartMoney and the Wall Street Journal.

James joined the New York Times as a business columnist in 2011. He continues to write columns and feature stories for the Times, which have won both Loeb and SABEW awards.

James combined his writing career with a commitment to education. He taught at Columbia School of Journalism beginning in 1992 and later became a tenured faculty member as the Bloomberg professor of Business Journalism. His book on writing, “Follow the Story,” grew out of his experiences in the classroom.

James was born and raised in Quincy. He is a recipient of the Order of Lincoln, the state’s highest honor. He received honorary degrees from Quincy University, DePauw University (where he has served as a trustee and a term as board chairman), Knox College, and Muhlenberg College. He is also Treasurer and a board member of the Authors League Fund, which helps authors and playwrights in need.

James is a classical pianist and often performs in chamber recitals, most recently in June at Stanford University. He lives with his husband, Benjamin Weil, and their two cats in Greenwich Village, New York City.

5 Life Lessons from James

James Stewart ’69 has seen remarkable levels of professional success, and his resume is nothing short of impressive. Tenured professor at Columbia University, author of 11 books, editor of the Wall Street Journal, attorney, and contributor to some of the most famous publications in the world, Stewart has a unique ability to simplify the complex and distill valuable lessons from his life’s experiences.

1. If you’re going to write it, stand behind it

Stewart’s first foray into journalism was an after-school job at the Quincy Herald-Whig where his assignments included writing obituaries and drafting the headline for the daily Ann Landers column.  James quickly learned he needed to write in such a way that the story was interesting, the truth was reported, and that he needed to be able to stand behind what he had written.

“In my daily life now, when I write about someone, there is a very small chance of me stepping out of my apartment and running into them on the street. Whereas, in Quincy, when I would write something, like an obituary, there was a very good chance I would run into family members of that person. It taught me that the people I was writing about are real people and the things I wrote would have an impact on them.”

2. Hard work pays off – just maybe when or how you think it will

When James was in junior high, he started a lawn mowing business. Running his first company taught him the value of a dollar, literally.

“My family lived on Wilmar Drive. I would stand in the vacant lot on the corner of Wilmar and Harrison and as far as the eye could see, I had mowed every lawn. And no wonder my business was so busy — I only charged a dollar. My parents had told me that’s what I should charge, and I didn’t know a lot about economics at the time. One dollar to mow a lawn must have been cheap because everyone signed up for it. And some of my customers were demanding. I remember this older woman in the neighborhood. For that dollar, she expected a lot of value. Sometimes I would finish and she would say the lawn wasn’t even enough. I would have to mow it again, with crisscrossing stripes. It would be 100 degrees out there and I had a push mower. Needless to say, I don’t mow lawns anymore. It was good though; I came out of there with a very strong work ethic. What I learned mowing those lawns has served me in good stead.”

3. If you don’t enjoy it, you are going to have trouble competing with people who do

After graduating from Harvard Law School, James was hired as an associate at a successful law firm in New York City.  After a short time at the firm, he realized that he may not be following the exact path he wanted and made the decision to pursue writing.

“The firm was very competitive. In my day, they would hire 20 lawyers a year. Each would have a seven- or eight-year apprenticeship, and then they would only hire about one of those as a partner. Everyone else had to go find another job. What I found interesting was the people who succeeded in the winnowing process were the ones who really loved what they were doing the most. It kind of surprised me. But truly loving what you do provides such a competitive advantage.

I realized I couldn’t compete with them because I didn’t love it that much. So, I asked myself what I loved. I loved journalism. I loved being editor of my college paper. I liked the whole idea of working in journalism.

But I am also glad that I didn’t go right into journalism. My time at the law firm was a very good experience. It gave me perspective. Being on the inside of a lot of these big cases, I learned what was really going on, as opposed to what people want you to know. I knew there can be a big gap between what really happened and whatever gets revealed.”

4. Trust yourself

While James was certain that he wanted to pursue journalism, the path he chose was far from guaranteed. But he knew that he could trust himself to figure it out if his first move wasn’t a success.

“[A husband of a friend] asked if I would consider working for American Lawyer. There was no American Lawyer -yet.  It hadn’t even published its first issue. But it was one of those things that I didn’t even think about that much. I just said, ‘Yeah, I would like to do that.’ Now it seems kind of crazy. The mortality rate for new magazines is high. It was kind of like Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland saying ‘Hey, let’s go put on a Broadway show.’ I am sure if I really thought about it, it wouldn’t have made any sense.  But it really felt like something I wanted to do, so I did. I guess I was confident enough to realize that if it failed, I could always go back.

When I put out the word I was leaving the law firm, so many associates and other lawyers came to see me. They’d close the door and say things like ‘I can’t believe you are doing this.’  and ‘I wish I could do that.’ I was thinking these were people with the best resumes in America, and they were acting like if they left the firm they would be homeless. I guess I was never that worried.”

5. You can make a difference doing what you love

James’s book, Blind Eye, covered the actions and legal battle of accused poisoner, Dr. Michael Swango. Swango had ties to Quincy, and James was asked to look into the story by Judge Dennis Cashman. When the book first came out, Swango had yet to be sentenced. James had the opportunity to attend the arraignment and got quite the satisfying surprise.

“When the hardback came out, Swango was temporarily in jail on sort of a minor charge, but he had not been charged with murder. After the book came out, he did get charged with murder. I remember going to the arraignment where he appeared. The prosecutor had a copy of my book, and it had post-its all over the place. I could see he had gone and highlighted things with colored pen. It was like Wow. I guess this must have had some impact.”

James B. Stewart Published Books