Stewart Ralph Roberts, Jr.

Stewart Ralph Roberts, Jr. MD, age 90 of Stone Mountain passed away on January 7, 2022.  He was born on October 2, 1931, on his father’s birthday in Atlanta, GA to Stewart Ralph Roberts, MD and Ruby Holbrook Roberts.  Dad said, “Boys should be raised on a farm” so at age five they moved from Druid Hills to a I20 acre farm on unpaved Redan Road three miles from Avondale Estates.  Stewart and his younger brother Bill loved doing farm chores, taught by their proud and accomplished tenant farmer - gathering eggs, milking cows, slopping pigs, playing hay-stack house, a brief episode of plowing behind Sam the mule (Gee, Haw), fishing in Snapfinger Creek, shooting Daisy BB guns and riding ponies.  Dad died when Stewart was nine and the following year our three-story farmhouse burned.  Mother, Stewart and Bill moved to Atlanta’s Brookwood Hills.  He graduated from Henry Grady High in 1949.

Stewart completed his freshman year of college at Emory at Oxford, the original (1836) Emory.  He transferred to “Big Emory” for his sophomore year, joined the ATO fraternity and played most sports.  A member of the Emory Honor Council, he graduated in 1953, and became the class Alumni representative for their 50^th year reunion.

After serving two years in the Army Signal Corps (Cryptography), he entered Emory Medical School on the GI Bill, a member of Phi Chi social fraternity, and Alpha Omega Alpha honor medical society, graduating in 1959.  He became the Emory Medical Alumni class representative.

After four years of training in Internal Medicine at Duke and Cincinnati, Stewart practiced Internal Medicine in Atlanta, culminating in two years of solo practice in Marietta.  He entered a Radiology residency at Emory (1968 - 71), then joined the Department of Radiology at the University of Utah as Chief of Radiology at the SLC VA Hospital.

Returning to Atlanta’s Grady Hospital in 1973, he practiced diagnostic radiology at Emory’s many hospitals and clinics for 27 years, retiring with viral encephalitis in late December 1999, his “sleeping sickness” resolving over six months.

Stewart enjoyed 41 years of membership in the druid Hills Golf Club, five years as Assistant Scout Master of Troop 18, serving as its Distant Trip Director (two week adventure backpacking in Philmont Boy Scout Ranch, wilderness lake canoeing in Canada, and river canoeing in Maine).  He spent over 100 nights in a pup tent camping.  He received the Order of the Arrow award as an adult scout leader.  Stewart particularly enjoyed his additional role as a step-parent, introducing Greg Moore (Eagle Scout) and Suzanne Moore (now MD) to the out-of-doors, national parks, and sharing in their education.

In retirement, Stewart enjoyed exercise, hiking, golf, the Emory Emeritus College, global warming education, Emory OLLI classes, the New York Times and travel (standout: three weeks in China).  He was a member of Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church and the Unitarian Universalist congregations.

Stewart is survived by his three children: Stewart R. Roberts, III; Barbara Elaine Roberts (Allison Bailes); Scott M. Roberts; six grandchildren; his brother, William Clifford Roberts, MD; three nephews, one niece and their children and several cousins.  Due to Covid, there will be a small graveside service at Oxford Historical Cemetery, just north of the Emory campus.  In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Boy Scouts of America, the YMCA or the Sierra Club.  A.S. Turner and Sons Funeral Home and Crematory is in charge of arrangements.