Steward history

W.C. Morris, a significant player in Stewart's history, joined the company in 1897 as a stenographer and later married William's only daughter Wilamina (Willie).

Founded in 1904, Steward Machine began as a manufacture of supplies for the coal and iron ore mining industry in central Alabama.

Maco continued to issue abstracts through the Stewart Law & Land Title Office until 1905, when he and brother Minor offered the first title insurance in Texas in the form of an indemnity against loss due to title claims.

In 1950, Fred Steward Sr. founded our company to meet the need for quality steel building components required by a rapidly changing economy.

Kieling, Jean "Steward, David L. 1951– ." International Directory of Business Biographies. . Encyclopedia.com.

Education: Central Missouri State University, BS, 1973.

In 1974, Steward was hired at Wagner Electric, but was laid off the following year.

In 1976 Steward accepted a marketing and sales position with the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company.

Steward remained with the company until 1979 when he joined Federal Express and served as a senior account executive.

He was recognized as salesman of the year and inducted into the company's hall of fame in 1981.

In 1984 Steward purchased a consulting firm, Transportation Business Services (TBS), which did rate auditing.

In 1985 the Earle Gear Company was acquired to accompany Steward Machine’s existing gear manufacturing, thus making available patented Cushionlocks®, Pillow Blocks, Lock Bars and Reducers to our customers.

In 1990 Steward founded World Wide Technology, with three other people and a small office.

In the company’s early years, Steward divided his time between World Wide Technology, TAS, and TBS. By 1993 it became obvious that Steward’s attention was too divided, and World Wide Technology was in serious debt.

In 1999 World Wide Technology spun off its telecommunications division to form Telcobuy.com.

By the year 2000, the business had grown to more than 500 employees and $812 million in annual sales.

Sales for the two companies continued to grow, although revenues slipped in 2002 as World Wide Technology felt the impact of the technology recession.

In 2003 combined reported revenues passed $1 billion, and Steward formed World Wide Technology Holding Company as the parent company for the two firms.

The first "honorary developers" were elected in April 2004; 8 candidates who achieved 80% support in a simple vote were elected, out of 20 nominated.

The role of stewards further evolved in 2006, with further emphasis on the necessity of the steward role not evolving into that of a "wiki-cop", or other form of super-administrator.

In the past, those users with advanced permissions on individual projects who ran were typically elected; in 2007, the trend began wherein serious candidates who held advanced permissions on multiple projects were not elected, primarily due to lack of experience in steward areas.

Also implemented in 2008 was the global staff user group, for paid employees of the Wikimedia Foundation, trustees, and others acting in an official capacity for the Foundation.

The 2009 elections used a very formalized election process with subpages, templates, and transclusion to get as much as possible translated into as many languages as possible, and streamline the voting process for users.

That global group would go on to have most of the active rights removed, following a request for comments regarding deletions that Wales performed on Commons in 2010.

There were two elections in 2011; the first saw 112 candidates; of which, 91 were disqualified, 10 were not elected, and 11 were elected.