Stewart Dent Blog Introduction

Guest post by Bennett Ryan

The character that I will be reenacting is named Stewart Dent, but he goes by Stew, and he is a composite character of a student at UWM in the 1960s when the planetarium finished construction and opened its doors. He was born on August 9, 1945, and is a Junior during the setting of the reenactment. He was born and raised in Shorewood; his family heritage is mostly English or Yankee with some German mixed in as well. He was raised with a Protestant religious background, but his family was not especially religious. While his family was not extremely religious they were still rather conservative, which Stewart began to rebel against when he moved out to go live at the college dorms. He went to Shorewood High School and graduated in 1963. He enrolled at UW-Milwaukee with the intention of majoring in Geography, but switched to Urban Studies in 1964, since the school only recently began offering in 1963. Learning about Urban Studies introduced him to problems that plague urban societies and made him think about possible solutions to them. During his time in college, he began reading the Kaleidoscope student newspaper at UWM and began to immerse himself in the counterculture movement. Off campus he enjoys going to rock concerts and festivals, or he is at the Downer Theater where he works at the concession stand. On campus he is involved in various student demonstrations, protesting the Vietnam war and pushing for the removal of ROTC on campus. His temperament could be described as cynical with disdain for authority figures. The instagram handle I’m using is @uwmstewdent.