David Stewart, Charge D'Affaires at the Embassy of the United States of America, and his wife Catrine, celebrated twenty-five years of marriage on Wednesday, June 6 2001.
David, a Texan, was a twenty-one year old economics undergraduate at Harvard and Catrine, an Austrian who was born in the Cameroons, a twenty year old undergraduate at Wellesley, studying history, when they met on a hayride in Concord, Massachusetts, in October 1975. By February 1976 they were engaged and were married by June in a Presbyterian Church in Boston.
"It was like lightning struck" says Catrine, and according to David "it was love at first sight."
The Stewarts are today parents of three daughters and two sons, ages 15 to 23 years.
After graduating from College, the couple travelled around the world for a year and "to make a little money" David did things like teach English in Taiwan. By this time David became interested in foreign affairs and did a second degree at Duke University, and continued to teach first in Virginia and then at the International School in India.
A career diplomat, David joined the foreign service in 1981, and from Washington went on his first posting to Romania, followed by the Bahamas and Pakistan, back to Washington, then to Germany, back to Washington again, on to Mexico and for the last two years Trinidad & Tobago, his first posting as Deputy Head of Mission.
At the end of two Carnivals, the question on how they felt about Trinidad & Tobago was a superfluous one, as David has been captured on film time and again at the all-inclusive Carnival fetes, at the recent Sparrow Concert for television, not to mention his mastery of the art of band-hopping on Carnival Tuesday from Harts to Poison "to follow the music" . While Catrine has opted for the more conservative type activities, appearing on stage with The Marionettes Chorale in its Christmas 2000 Presentation and recently launched her book on the art of Journal Writing.