Ralph Tindall Stewart, eldest son of Clement and Harriet Heist (Drinkhouse) Stewart, was born in Easton, Pennsylvania, January 27, 1870. After attendance at the Misses Swayie's School, Track Academy and Lerch Preparatory School, he entered Lafayette College, whence he was graduated C.E., class of 1890. He began professional engineering with the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, going thence to the Berlin Bridge Company, of Berlin, Connecticut, and from the latter to the Shiffler Bridge Company of Pittsburgh, serving the two last named companies as cost engineer. After leaving Pittsburgh he was for a time in the employ of the Pottsville Iron & Steel Company of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, then returned to Easton, where, in 1895, in association with his brother, Clarence Dudley Stewart, now deceased, he organized the Keystone Construction Company, which later was incorporated as the R. T. and C. D. Stewart Contracting Company, Incorporated, civil engineers and contractors. Ralph T. Stewart was chosen the first president of the company, which has had a very successful career, the chief activity of the company, solving the engineering problems met with in the construction of large manufacturing plants and their later construction. Reinforced concrete work has been a special problem solved successfully by the Stewart Brothers, and they having erected some of the largest plants in Easton, Pennsylvania, where that material was used. Mr. Stewart is also a director of the National Bag Company, and a man of recognized ability as both professional engineer and executive manager. For one year he served South Easton Borough as engineer, and he is a member of the Board of Trade, and Rotary' Club, but his tastes are all professional and he takes little part in public affairs.

From college days, Mr. Stewart has been a devotee of athletic sports, and he now enjoys the recreation of the out-of-doors, hunting and motoring particularly appealing to him, while a good horse or a well trained dog always attracts his more than passing notice. He is a member of the Masonic order, the Sons of Veterans, the Pomfret Club, the Zeta Psi fraternity, Brainerd Union Presbyterian Church, and politically is a Republican.

From November 5, 1918, to May 26, 1919, Mr. Stewart was associated in civil capacity with the Ordnance Board, created by Congress to function in connection with and under the direction of the Ordnance Department, its members appointed by the Secretary of War, for the appraisal of about nine thousand five hundred claims resulting from the great explosion at the Gillespie Loading Plant, October 4, 1918. Mr. Stewart was one of three out of sixty chosen as special appraiser, and bore much of the burden in the important work of placing the value of destroyed property in and about Perth Amboy, New Jersey. At the conclusion of his services, he received a gratifying letter of commendation and appreciation of his work from the chairman of the board.