David C. Stewart was associated with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) from 1968 until his retirement in March 1996. While at CPB, Mr. Stewart served as Director for Special Projects, Director of National Program Projects for Television and as the Director of International Activities.
Prior to his work with CPB, Mr. Stewart taught in the drama departments of Case Western Reserve University, Vassar College and Robert College (in Istanbul, Turkey). He produced television programs in association with the Greater Washington Educational Television Association (GWETA), for the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, the Folger Library, the D.C. Public Schools system and four local universities. In 1952, Stewart, with grants from the Ford Foundation, worked in Washington to help start new educational television stations by reserving channels. Mr. Stewart later joined the Joint Council on Educational Television in 1955 as a production consultant, becoming its director in 1960 . For several years, he directed the Washington office of National Educational Television (NET) before becoming director of Public Media at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in 1966. During his three years with NEA, he supervised the creation of the American Film Institute. He conducted special film projects for the American Council on Education, Dartmouth College, and the U.S. Office of Education. During the last forty years, he advised numerous private foundations, government agencies and national public television organizations. Mr. Stewart has written about television and film for the Saturday Review, Harpers Magazine, and many trade journals.
During his tenure with CPB, Mr. Stewart created and supervised numerous television and radio services. He encouraged international public broadcasting in a number of ways: by helping to create co-production initiatives in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America; by bringing greater visibility to American public broadcasting abroad and facilitating the international distribution of American public television and radio productions; and by leading trade delegations to countries in Asia, Europe and Latin America. While Director of International Activities at CPB ( 1980-1996 ), Mr. Stewart contributed regular articles to Current, the national public broadcasting journal, regarding the development of international public broadcasting.
From the guide to the David C. Stewart Papers, 1967-1996 and undated, 1988-1995, (Mass Media and Culture)
