Scholarship Recipient Leaves a Legacy for Future Pioneers

Stewart Bruner entered Transylvania University in 1940 thanks to a scholarship. He was a bass-baritone in the college’s a cappella choir and a tuba player.

By 1942, the big band era and the lure of professional opportunities would prompt Stewart to leave school before finishing his degree. Yet, he never forgot the education he received from Transy music instructors such as Jack Bryden, May Nolan and Jim Kovack.

As a professional musician, Stewart played baritone saxophone and arranged music with the Jan Garber swing band. In 1944, he joined Harry James and His Orchestra in Hollywood as a utility sax-woodwind player and spot arranger. While in California, the band made movies and regularly recorded for Columbia Records. They also had summer bookings in New York, Boston and Chicago.

As big bands gave way to smaller groups, Stewart returned to Kentucky and completed his bachelor’s degree in music education. He went on to earn many other degrees as he began a distinguished 40-plus-year music education and administration career in both Florida and Ohio. He was also the principal clarinetist for the Tampa Symphony Orchestra.

Early in his career, Stewart married Virginia Boine Bruner, a native of western Pennsylvania and a World War II WAVE (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) with the U.S. Naval Reserve. Together, they had two children.

In 2005, the couple established the Stewart and Virginia Bruner Endowed Service Scholarship to support instrumental music students at the university.

“I made up my mind to repay the school when I moved into professional music with such ease,” Stewart said. “With only two and a half Transy years, I found that I was comfortable playing with the big boys of Hollywood and New York.”

Stewart and Virginia later contributed musical instruments to Transy and, with careful planning, included the school in their estate plans by making Transylvania University a beneficiary of their life insurance policy—which will add to their scholarship fund.

Although Stewart passed in 2015 and Virginia in early 2022, they left an enduring and meaningful legacy. They chose to pay forward the generosity that Stewart received as a student to future generations of Pioneers.