Don Stewart; Insurance Industry Activist

Don Stewart, 70, insurance industry advocate and organizer who fought to extend coverage to minorities. Stewart began his career as an agent for Farmer’s Insurance before founding his own agency in Pasadena in 1963. He developed that into the American Agents Alliance, a statewide cooperative of independent agents that lobbies on political and regulatory issues affecting the insurance industry. He served as president of the group from 1966 to 1979 and as executive director from 1979 until he retired in 1991, turning over the responsibility to his daughter, Lorelle Hurlbut. Stewart was instrumental in helping to pass California’s compulsory auto insurance bill in 1974. Concerned about problems of redlining, Stewart helped create the Alliance of Los Angeles Inner City Brokers and Agents to seek better insurance coverage for minorities. From his South Pasadena home, Stewart also founded the National Auto Agents Alliance in 1995. On Tuesday in Corpus Christi, Texas, of a heart attack.