June Stewart, a former athletics administrator at Vanderbilt University, passed away on February 19. She was 78 years old.
Stewart began her career at Vanderbilt in 1973 as a secretary in the sports information and National Commodore Club office. She was named assistant sports information director in 1977, making her the first woman at Vanderbilt to hold that position. From 1979 to 1990, she served as Vanderbilt’s women’s sports information director. In 1990, she was promoted to women’s sports program director and assistant athletics director for future revenue sports. In 1993, she was named associate athletics director and remained in that position until her retirement in 2001.
Outside of Vanderbilt, Stewart served as president of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) from 1990-1991 and was the first of only three woman presidents in the organization’s history. She was inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame in 1997 and received the CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000. Additionally, Stewart served on a number of committees during her time as an administrator at Vanderbilt, including the NCAA Women’s Basketball Committee from 1990 to 1996, and the SEC Executive Committee from 1995 to 1998.
Stewart was elected to the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 2004, the Tennessee Sports Writers Hall of Fame in 2007 and the inaugural Vanderbilt Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008. Each fall, Vanderbilt women’s tennis hosts the June Stewart Invitational in her honor.
Stewart was a graduate of Christian College in Columbia, Missouri.