Earl Stewart Deane

E. Stewart Deane, a proud son of Kentucky, member of the Greatest Generation, and devoted husband and father, died on Wednesday, January 16 after a brief illness at the very end of a happy, healthy and successful life. He was 87 years old. Mr. Deane was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, where he graduated from Male High School. He served aboard an LST vessel for the U.S. Navy during World War II, assisting in several amphibious operations in the Pacific. Like many of his contemporaries, Mr. Deane spoke of his war experiences sparingly and without ego. Upon returning home, he attended the University of Louisville, where he received a B.S. in business. Shortly thereafter he went to work for the Pennsylvania-based Brockway Glass Company. For the next 40+ years, he was a successful salesman for Brockway, forging relationships with people and businesses across the Midwest. Through his work, Mr. Deane established a long affiliation with the Bottlers Association, for which he served as a board member who helped organize annual trips, conventions, and outings. Before fully retiring in the 1990s, he helped operate Bokay Florist in Broadripple with his wife, Judy. Mr. Deane resided in Indianapolis for more than 50 years, and he lived in the same house on the east side the entire time. Mr. Deane took great pride in calling Indianapolis home, and he could talk colorfully and specifically about the city's transition from a small city with quiet, rural surroundings to a sprawling metropolitan area. Despite that, Mr. Deane would be just as quick to good-naturedly point out that he was a Kentuckian, not a Hoosier. Mr. Deane visited Louisville regularly throughout his life to visit family and friends, and he was an avid University of Louisville fan who never missed a Cardinal basketball or football game on TV. His family was only too happy that he lived to see his beloved U-of-L football team beat Florida in the 2013 Sugar Bowl. Mr. Deane was an avid golfer who held the distinction of actually being good at the sport. He was a low-handicap player as a younger man, and even into his 80s there was very little that would make him say no to a round of golf. He was fortunate to travel extensively in the United States, and he particularly enjoyed recent trips to Alaska and a driving vacation throughout the American West. Mr. Deane possessed a fantastic memory. He recalled names, dates, locations, and pieces of trivia with ease. From biographical information about an old friend or business associate to remembering the year an intersection in Indianapolis was outfitted with traffic lights, his memory bank grew larger as he grew older. Kind, considerate and generous, Mr. Deane was an easy-going conversationalist who listened as well as he talked. He took a genuine interest in the lives of others, their successes and hardships. He was forgiving of the shortcomings of others, and comfortable enough in his own skin that he didn't need to be surrounded by people who shared his outlook on politics, life, and the world around us. If the measure of a man is how much he valued his relationships with others, then Mr. Deane was a giant. Stu was a study in moderation, unless you count pepper, which he applied with alarming generosity on everything except dessert. He could laugh at himself, as he did quite often when his well-known hearing woes would cause a moment of hilarious confusion. Physically, his most notable trait was his healthy shock of white hair, his large, bushy eyebrows, and his wide smile. Stu was the devoted and adoring husband of 31 years to Judy. In retirement, he took great pleasure in sharing in the things that were important to Judy; if she offered or volunteered her time to something, you could be sure that Mr. Deane would do the same. In recent years, he took particular pride in Judy's work with the Tony Stewart Foundation. To be sure, if you wanted to know anything about Tony's driving career, past or present, Mr. Deane was the person to ask. He also took great joy in the successes of his son, Steve, who has had a long and distinguished career in the U.S. Army, his daughter, Siovhan, who is the chief operating officer for the Harvard University Development Office and his son, Trevor, who is a successful entrepreneur. In addition to his wife and children, Mr. Deane is survived by his daughter-in-law, Cathy Deane; his son-in-law David O'Connor; his grandchildren Carissa Deane, Erinn Deane, and Marney O'Connor; his great-granddaughter Caelin; and his sister Doris and all of her family members in Kentucky. Mr. Deane was also the beloved father of the late David Deane.