Stewart Bass

Stewart Bass, 93, of Fargo, ND, died March 23, 2015 at Woodland Lodge, Fergus Falls, MN.

Stewart Bass was born May 25, 1921, in the Bitterroot Valley of western Montana. He attended grade and high school in Stevensville, Montana, and graduated from the University of Montana at Missoula.

During World War II, he served in the Navy and was a naval aviator, flying off carriers. He was awarded the Navy Cross, which is the highest decoration given by the Navy, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, three Air Medals and several Presidential Unit Citations for combat operations in the Pacific arena, mostly abroad the carriers USS Yorktown (The Fighting Lady) and the USS Lexington.

Upon returning home, Stew worked for the Montana State Employment Service as a Farm Placement Representative securing labor, particularly sugar beet labor, for western Montana farmers. He started working for American Crystal Sugar Company at their Missoula, Montana factory in 1954, as an Agriculturist. In 1959, he was moved to the company’s corporate offices in Denver, Colorado and, as the General Agriculturist, was editor of the company’s agricultural publications.

When American Crystal was purchased by the Red River Valley Growers in 1973, the corporate offices were moved to Fargo, North Dakota and Stew was appointed Vice President of Agriculture, the position he served until his retirement in 1986.

Under his tenure, numerous innovative improvements were made in the valley sugar beet industry, particularly in beet receiving, storage, enhanced quality and grower quality payment system. Within the industry, Stewart served as a director and president of Western Seed Production Corporation in Phoenix, Arizona; a director and president of West Coast Beet Seed Company in Salem, Oregon; a director and president of the Beet Sugar Development Foundation in Fort Collins, Colorado; a director and president of the American Society of Sugar Beet Technologists from which he received their Meritorious Service Award and the Honorary Lifetime Membership Award. Stewart was a past advisory board member of the Moorhead Area Technical Institute. He is also a past director of the Fargo-Moorhead Family YMCA’s Heritage Foundation.

Since Stew’s retirement, he devoted considerable time to capturing the physical and oral history of sugar beet production in the Red River Valley and helped establish a central collection of material into the archives at the Northwest Minnesota Historical Center at Moorhead State University Moorhead. Stew was also one of the founding directors of the International Sugar Beet Historical Society established to collect and display early beet machinery and other collected memorabilia in a special museum located in the heart of the Red River Valley. He worked very closely with Dr. Terry Shoptaugh of Minnesota State University Moorhead and the Minnesota Historical Society on the history book “Roots of Success”, published by Red River Valley Sugar Beet Growers Association highlighting the impact the sugar beet industry had (and does have) on the economy of the Red River Valley. Stew also served as an editor of a book titled,

“A Heritage of Growth-The First Hundred Years of Harvest” published by American Crystal Sugar Company. During the last decade of Stew’s life, he enjoyed working as a volunteer at the Fargo Air Museum where he could be found doing everything from building offices to sharing his own wartime experiences while giving tours of the museum. He was made an honorary member of their board of directors in 2015.

By far, Stew’s greatest love and enjoyment was his family. He married Mary Jane Brust in December of 1945, in Great Falls, Montana. They have two married children, daughter, Kathy (Herman) Metzger of Climax, Minnesota and son, Jim (Julie) Bass of Iowa City, Iowa. Grandchildren include: Mike (Jessica) Metzger of Elizabeth, Minnesota and Laura (Jeff) Bell of East Grand Forks, Minnesota and Adelaide Bass of Iowa City, Iowa along with five great grandchildren. Stew enjoyed the family lake cabin near Park Rapids, Minnesota where he spent many hours enjoying one of his favorite pastimes, fishing. He particularly enjoyed his many fly fishing trips to Montana with his son and numerous fly-in trips with his family to remote Canadian lakes.