Dr. Dorothy Steward, portrait by Sarah Joffe, Adirondack Medical Center
Born: March 23, 1909
Died: June 12, 1997
Married: Dr. Clayton M. Steward
Dr. Dorothy Steward established the first in-hospital clinical laboratory at the Saranac Lake General Hospital. She directed the laboratory from 1949 to her retirement in 1972. Dr. Steward was also the attending pathologist at the Will Rogers Hospital, Saranac Lake, and consulting pathologist at the Veterans Hospital in Tupper Lake, and the New York State Tuberculosis Hospital at Ray Brook. She and her husband lived at Howling Dog Farm in 1964.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, June 13, 1997
SARANAC LAKE - Dr. Dorothy Stevens Steward, 88, died Thursday, June 12, 1997, at the Uihlein Mercy Center in Lake Placid
Born March 23, 1909 in Haskell, Texas, she was the daughter of William Herbert and Ethel McDonnold Stevens.
She attended Texas Christian University, and North Texas A. & M. for pre-medical studies. She received her Doctor of Medicine degree in 1940 from Baylor University College of Medicine in Dallas, Texas. She completed post-graduate work at Albany Medical College, Albany, and Columbia University College of Medicine and Presbyterian Hospital in New York City.
In 1943, Dr. Steward was appointed assistant professor of pathology at Albany Medical College, and received her American boards specialty certification in pathological anatomy and clinical pathology. She was appointed associate pathologist at Wilson Memorial Hospital in Johnson City. She established and directed the Broome County Blood Bank.
She was married to Clayton M. Steward M.D. in 1948. He survives.
Following her marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Steward relocated to Saranac Lake and established the first in hospital clinical laboratory at the Saranac Lake General Hospital. She directed the laboratory from 1949 to her retirement in 1972. Dr. Steward was also the attending pathologist at the Will Rogers Hospital, Saranac Lake, and consulting pathologist at the Veterans Hospital in Tupper Lake, and the New York State Tuberculosis Hospital at Ray Brook.
In 1950 the Cytology Clinic at the Saranac Lake General Hospital was established under her direction.
She obtained state certification for laboratories at the Alice Hyde Hospital, Malone, Placid Memorial Hospital, Lake Placid, and Mercy General Hospital, Tupper Lake.
Her medical affiliations include the Franklin County Medical Society, the New York State Medical Society, American Society of Clinical Pathologists, College of American Pathologists, American Society of Cytology, New York State Association of Public Health Laboratories, and the New York State Society of Pathologists.
Dr. Steward was an active member of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Saranac Lake, and a member of the Altar Guild. She was the charter president of the Episcopal Church Women of the Northern Adirondack Deanery. which was instituted in 1965.
She is survived by her husband; a brother, William R. Stevens of Providence, R.I.; and many cousins.
There will be no calling hours. A funeral service will be held 11 a.m. on Monday at the Church of St. Luke the Beloved Physician with the Rev. Frederick Dennis officiating. Private interment will take place in the Mt. Hope Cemetery, Norwich.
Those wishing to remember Dr. Dorothy Steward may make contributions in her name to the Altar Guild, Church of St. Luke the Beloved Physician, or the High Peaks Hospice in care of the Fortune-Keough Funeral Home.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, December 5, 1995
New equipment donated to AMC in honor of Dr, Steward
SARANAC LAKE - Forty years after being inspired to pursue a career in the field of histology by area pathologist, Dr. Dorothy Steward, retired Lab Director of Adirondack Medical Center's General Hospital of Saranac Lake, a New York City woman has donated $6,000 for the purchase of a Ziess Microtome, in Dr. Steward's honor for AMC's laboratory.
Mrs. Angeline Rienzie, age 78, came, to Saranac Lake in the mid 1940s to "cure" from TB at the Prescott House in Saranac Lake. After recovering, Mrs. Rienzie did book work for Trudeau Institute and worked at the Lake Placid Club.
She then got a job working in the lab at the General Hospital of Saranac Lake under the direction of Dr. Dorothy Steward.
Dr. Steward encouraged Mrs. Rienzie to learn histology telling her that she would always be able to "take care of herself" with this knowledge. Upon leaving the General Hospital, Mrs. Rienzie went to school in Albany to study histology and later worked in hospitals in Oswego and Syracuse. She then relocated to the New York City area where she worked in the laboratory of the Nassau County Medical Center retiring in 1981.
However, she continues to work part-time preparing slides for medical students at the New York Institute of Technology College.
Upon donating the $6,000 check to the Adirondack Medical Center, Mrs. Rienzie said that she had worked all her life and does not have a lot of money for philanthropic purposes, but she wanted to honor Dr. Dorothy Steward in some meaningful way as an expression of appreciation for guiding her into her career field.
Dr. Steward, a resident of Saranac Lake, was the Director of Pathology and Clinical Laboratories at the General Hospital of Saranac Lake for many years before retiring in 1972.
The Zeiss Microtome is used by AMC's histology technicians to slice thin pieces of tissue, removed at surgery, for microscopic evaluation on a cellular level.
