Remembering Stuart Klein
1942-2023
By Wayne King
To this country boy from New Hampshire, Stuart Klein was the epitome of the 60s. He came to Camp Mowglis - School of the Open, in 1964, my second year in the youngest dorm (I was 7). Stuart had been through his first year at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (of course!) where through serendipity he had met Jerry Hakes and through Jerry's guidance came to Mowglis - the place he would come to call "the one spot on earth where I had the least to complain about!"
One year Stuart would arrive with shoulder-length hair and a fu-manchu mustache and the next he would come with a regulation military cut, that he insisted my father trim up twice during the summer when my dad, the barber, arrived for the required haircuts.
While the Craftshop was initially his domain, it was not long before Mowglis' Director William Baird Hart Sr. saw past the quirky iconoclast veneer to the strong and empathic leader that Stuart would be to all of us and made him a part of the leadership team.
I can't possibly convey the vignettes of Stuart that swirl through my brain as I reflect on those years. No doubt it was a measure of the faith that William Hart Sr. had in him that led Mr. Hart to assign Stuart the task of meeting a young African-American boy, Singleton Bender Jr - "Junior" to all of us - in New York City, fresh off a bus from his home in rural Piney Woods Mississippi, to escort him safely to Mowglis for his first summer, of many.
Junior was our Jackie Robinson. The young boy who broke the "color barrier" at Mowglis and captured the hearts of every member of our large "pack", in large part because Stuart and Mr. Hart, with a whole lot of help from Shad Farouqi and Jim West, saw to it that he was made to feel a brother of the pack right from the start. I still laugh at the mental picture of the short Jewish guy and the young African-American boy facing the good, the bad, and the ugly together in the Big Apple. Going to a Yankees game and a wrestling match at Madison Square Garden, even having to turn to Gaius Merwin to throw his legal weight around to secure a room at a posh New York Hotel that "just couldn't seem to find their reservation".
But there were so many other memorable moments. On a day-off hike up Mount Washington with Steve Underwood, Stuart and Steve were caught in a storm and took refuge in the weather station. As they emerged from the station Stuart was dumbfounded by his inability to move against the wind, until he realized that he had caught his poncho in the door!
I can still picture Bill Boicourt and Phil Hart leaning against the fence on Greybrother's field sharing a funny story with Stuart. Stuart's head thrown back in his irrepressible and familiar laugh. That same winter he and Bill would go out clubbing in Manhattan and ended up finding their way into a performance by Frank Zappa.
Then there was the time he knocked, unannounced, on Irene Gibbs door with Charlie Walbridge and the two were greeted by Irene toting her shotgun, quickly traded for a warm hug.
There were the private moments as well . . . when Stuart helped Jim West create an engagement ring for Elaine. Or when Myron Braley taught him to use a lathe as he described the process he and his father had used to castrate a huge boar. Stuart treasured his friendship with Myron, as solid an old Yankee as was ever made.
However, the picture that most boys from those days will have vivid memories of is that of "Mr. Klien" covered with paint, a brush in each hand and one in his mouth as he labored away on the massive murals that he would create for the fancy dress ball costume night held annually in those days. One year he painted a nearly floor to ceiling homage to Phil Hart and another capturing Mr. Bill Hart Sr on council rock.
Thank you Stuart for helping us all to see the very best in one another. (With apologies to Kipling:) "Good hunting on a new trail, dear brother. Remember, the brothers and sisters of the pack loved thee."
