War hero, actor Stuart dies of cancer at 63

Friday, July 12, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Robert Stuart's C-130 military transport plane was hit in the gas tank by a Viet Cong mortar, sending fuel spewing into the skies over Southeast Asia.

Noted for his calm, easy-going nature, the veteran Air Force pilot and lifelong Las Vegan had to rely on those traits to get home safely to his wife and 12-year-old daughter, who waited at their home in Okinawa.

"All we could do was hope and pray he would come home safely," said his wife, Joan Stuart. "On this occasion (in the late 1960s), the plane could have blown up at anytime."

Quite a distance from the Air Force Base at Cam Ranh, 175 miles northeast of Saigon, Stuart braved the odds and got his crew and cargo of ammunition home safely, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross for his conduct under fire.

Retired Lt. Col. Robert Bradley Stuart, who would later work on the early space shuttle models as well as for several Las Vegas engineering firms, died of cancer Tuesday at his Las Vegas home. He was 63.

Visitation is Sunday for the man who enjoyed acting in his spare time, appearing as an extra in several movies made in Las Vegas, as well as in plays and commercials. Viewing hours will be 1-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m. at Davis Paradise Valley Funeral Home, 6200 S. Eastern Ave.

Services will be 8:30 a.m. Monday at Davis Paradise, followed by a 10 a.m. graveside ceremony at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City.

Stuart had been a flight instructor for a year before serving his two-year stint in Vietnam. He received numerous air medals and a meritorious service award for his missions, which included dropping flares to mark enemy sites for bombers and refueling planes in mid-flight.

"My husband was a man of few words -- but when he talked, you knew he meant what he said," Joan Stuart said. "He was a man of honor."

Robert Petty, a boyhood chum of Stuart, remembered him for his integrity and intelligence.

"Bob was a very honest man who would do anything he could for his friends," Petty said.

"He was well-liked in school because he was so knowledgeable. He was so smart, the principal (his senior year) gave him the test for teachers (seeking credentials to work in Nevada) and he outscored two-thirds of the teachers in the state."

His high grades at Moapa Valley High in Overton earned Stuart a recommendation from U.S. Sen. Pat McCarran to the U.S. Naval Academy, where he distinguished himself in academics.

Born in Las Vegas, Stuart's father, Bradley, was a Union Pacific Railroad pumper, who also had graduated from the Naval Academy. His mother was a former schoolteacher.

Although Stuart's military career took him all over the United States and overseas for a quarter century, he always called Las Vegas home, and eventually settled here in 1975. Locally, he worked as an engineer for BDM and SAIC.

In the early manned space flights of the 1960s, Stuart was a recovery officer on missions to pluck astronauts from capsules floating on the ocean. Among them was John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit Earth.

Stuart's engineering career included working on the Manned Orbiting Laboratories, now known as the space shuttles.

"In some films of the early shuttle flights, you can see him in the control room (at the Johnson Space Center) in Houston," Joan said.

Not one to be camera shy, Stuart developed a love for acting late in life. He and his wife appeared together as extras in films like "Casino" and "Rode Flower," the later of which was distributed overseas.

They also appeared in commercials for the Boulder Station and Rio, as well as in local productions of "Little Theatre of Fable Land" and "The Curious Savage."

Also in his later years, Stuart worked on a ranch the couple owns outside of town, where they also mined sand and gravel.

"He loved life and was doing everything he could to fight the cancer," Joan said, noting her husband was diagnosed with the disease in January. "But, at the end, he squeezed our daughter's hand real tight, and then was gone."

In addition to his wife, Stuart is survived by a daughter, Scarlett Yokomizo, of Henderson; and two granddaughters, Nicole and Alexandra Yokomizo.