Stewart was born in Brooklyn, New York to a family of decidedly modest means. His father, Joseph, ran a pharmacy. Stewart worked alongside his father, "picking and packing" product for shipment to the customers. Stewart took over the pharmacy after his father died in 1978. Under his guidance, the company moved from a tiny pharmacy on Avenue D in Brooklyn to a garage on Troy Avenue, then to larger quarters in Elmhurst, and finally to its 500,000 square foot facility in Whitestone. Stewart ran Kinray with a determined focus on customer service. Realizing that the independent neighborhood pharmacy was becoming an endangered species in the world of the giants such as Duane Reade, Rite Aid, an