I grew up just west of Charles City in the town of Floyd and graduated from Floyd High School in 1949. A long, winding road brought the "Floyd Boy" back to Charles City to sell real estate 23 years later.

After graduation I spent four years in the U.S. Air Force. I married my high school sweetheart, Donna, while I was home for Christmas in 1952. I finished my bachelor's degree at Iowa State Teachers College in 1957 and subsequently finished a Master's degree in counseling at the University of Minnesota. During that time I held several positions at schools in Iowa and Minnesota, including teacher, coach and counselor.

I left my job as counselor at Richfield (Minnesota) High School to begin my career as a REALTOR® at Edina Realty in Bloomington, Minnesota in 1972, and I returned to Iowa three years later. In Charles City I teamed up with Bill Harrold Realty until I started my own firm in a one-room office at 205 North Main Street in 1987. In an early sign of the agency's dedication to state-of-the-art technology, I installed the first computer used for real estate business in Charles City later that year.

What was then Larry Stewart Realty has always been a family business. Dean, my youngest, joined the firm in 1988, and my wife, Donna, and my oldest, Lori, are also agents at Stewart Realty Company. Donna and I have four other adult children, Dana, Gary, Lana and Joni, and 13 grandchildren, and I can only try my best to lure them all back to Iowa.

Over time I have led a wide variety of community organizations. I have taken turns as president of the Cedar Valley Board of REALTORS®, the Charles City Chamber of Commerce, the United Way Board and the University of Northern Iowa Real Estate Advisory Committee. I am a member of the Elks Lodge, the Moose Lodge and St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church.

As I hand off this business to the next generation, I am full of hope. The future of Stewart Realty Company is in good hands.