Bob Stewart’s roots ran very deep at Federal Way High School. The school meant the world to him.

Stewart’s love of Federal Way High School was on display during the final moments of his life. The longtime coach and teacher was covered in the familiar blue and white Eagle blanket that was given to him by the Federal Way High School debate team when he was taken from his Northeast Tacoma home after succumbing to cancer Thursday morning.

“Federal Way High School was his life,” said his daughter, Teresa Houser.

Stewart, who taught and coached at Federal Way for 35 years, died Sept. 25 after an eight-month battle with mesothielioma (asbestos cancer). He was 68 years old and was the head baseball coach at Federal Way High School from 1970-1981 and again from 1991-97.

“He was very much an Eagle, through and through,” said Eric Fiedler, who took over the Federal Way baseball program from Stewart in 1998 before moving on to Enumclaw High School in 2006. “He was a very dedicated and a great guy. Just a great school guy.”

There are only 3,000 cases a year in the United States of mesothielioma cancer and Stewart’s was only one of four cases in the world that resulted in the cancer being inside the spinal cord, causing paralysis from the waist down the last month of his life. The form of deadly cancer is caused by exposure to asbestos.

Stewart was born Feb. 17, 1940, in Cherokee, Okla., during a brutal snowstorm. His mother had to be taken by train to the nearest hospital because the roads were not drivable. After graduating from Wapato High School, near Yakima, Stewart went on to play baseball and basketball at Yakima Valley College, where he was an all-league shortstop, and then on to Central Washington University. Stewart eventually spent one season playing in the minor league system of the Cincinnati Reds organization.

His coaching and teaching career began at Wade Calvin Elementary School in Sumner, where he taught sixth grade. He eventually moved on to