Stewart W. Black

Stewart W. Black, 70

Wonderful husband, father, grandfather, brother and friend

Stewart W. Black, 70, Rockford, died at 3:17 p.m. Monday, December 12, 2011in OSF St. Anthony Medical Center.
Born May 21, 1941 in Rockford, son of Howard and Lila (Sandehn) Black.
Graduated from Pecatonica High School in 1959.
Stewart joined the Navy in September of 1959 and served until November of 1963 while being stationed in California, Guam and Japan.
Returned to Pecatonica in 1965 and worked for Illinois Bell and ATamp;T until 1984.
He worked for Lucent from 19941999, retiring from there after working in communications for 35 years.
He then contracted at OCE for several years.
For many years
he served as a steward and treasurer for the IBEW Union. Married Barb Nelson on November 21, 2000 in the Little Brown Church in the Vale in Nashua, IA.

Stewart owned the Big Sky Trap Range where he spent many memorable hours,
and he also participated in the CRP Farm Land Program For Wild Life.
He enjoyed shooting at the Plug and Pellet as well as hunting and fishing with his special SLU CRU guys and special friends.

Survivors include his wife, Barb; children Shari (Stuart) Johnson, Julie (Gene) Edwards and William (Beth) Black; grandchildren, Holly Johnson, Quincy Johnson, Timothy Johnson, Nathan Black and Brandon Black; sisters, Nancy Germain, Linda (Bert) Johnson; the mother of his children, Jerrie Pals Black; fatherinlaw and motherinlaw, Bob and Jean Johnson; sisterinlaw, Nancy (Mike) Willuweit; brotherinlaw, Mark (Cappy) Johnson; nieces and nephews, Ryan Johnson, Kari (Brent) Denton, Ken Germain and Angie (Bret) Olson; special cousins, Jeanne Shank, Gail (Brian) Quinn, Blake Johnson, Jim (Lesley) Tilley, Jessica Daniels and his special loving cat, Annie.
Predeceased by his parents and brotherinlaw, Corky Germain.

A celebration of his life will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, December 17th, 2011 in Fitzgerald Funeral Home and Crematory Mulford Chapel, 1860 S. Mulford Road with Reverend Wendell Maynard officiating. Visitation on Friday from 5 to 8 pm and from 10 a.m. until time of service on Saturday. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to to the family to be used for nature preservation and conservation.