REGIONAL – Whittier Tech Supt. Maureen Lynch last week ran into a wall with fewer cracks than her school has as she tried to persuade town and city officials in the Whittier District to support the proposed $440 million new school building. “We have to do something,”...
Stewart Lytle
Stewart Lytle is the lead reporter for The Town Common newspaper. Before joining The Town Common, he was a national correspondent for Scripps-Howard Newspapers in Washington, D.C., covering the Pentagon and Congress. He has also written for newspapers in Dallas, TX, and Birmingham, AL.
As a national reporter for the Scripps Howard newspaper chain, Stewart wrote the inside story on military life of soldiers and sailors and their families. He landed on aircraft carriers, experienced oxygen deprivation for high-altitude flight training and crawled through the mud with Marine snipers.
One of his proudest achievements outside of journalism was assisting USAA Chairman Robert McDermott in securing federal legislation that mandated air bags in vehicles.
Stewart is also a novelist and has written non-fiction books. He is currently working on a non-fiction book and screenplay about an incident that occurred in Boston.
His first novel, Iron City Conspiracy, explores power in a city. It features a black newspaper editor solving the bombing of a historic black church in a tough Alabama town.
Following in the footsteps of his idol, Ernest Hemingway, Stewart has completed a new novel about a love affair in the midst of the Spanish Civil War. The book, Montserrat, is based on a true story and has been made into a screenplay that will become an international feature film.
A graduate of Phillips Academy and Princeton University, Stewart lives with his wife, Mary, in Newburyport.
Honoring ‘Once Known’ Graves
NEWBURYPORT – The city is raising money to recognize 18 grave sites in the Old Burying Ground that were recently found by ground-penetrating radar. The city and the Newburyport Black History Initiative believe the unmarked graves near Auburn Street were those of 18th...
Pink House Supporters Blindsided
NEWBURY - When U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced last week that it planned to demolish the beloved Pink House on the Plum Island Turnpike, its strongest supporters were completely blindsided. The leaders of the Support the Pink House (STPH), a non-profit...
Land Court Rejects Denial of 500-ton Trash Station
GEORGETOWN – Land Court Judge Kevin Smith sided last week with G. Mello Trash Disposal Corp. and ordered the town’s Conservation Commission to approve conditions on the proposed 500-ton trash transfer station that are not “unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious.” The...
Run for Fun, Support Veterans
ROWLEY – If you would like to do more this Veterans Day than thank veterans for their service, join in the fun Saturday for a 5-kilometer run/walk. And bring your children for a 1-mile fun run. The Rowley Volunteer Fire Protection Association (RVFPA) is hosting this...
PI Grille Owner To Face Criminal Charges
PLUM ISLAND – Francis Broadbery, owner of the now closed Plum Island Grille, will face a magistrate Nov. 15 to determine if he will be charged with malicious destruction of property at the grille estimated by a private contractor to be $192,000. The Newbury Police...
Great Bluegrass Music Served Up
REGIONAL – Ken Irwin, a music producer, who has heard and seen more bands than most, described the Authentic Unlimited Band as “the best he has heard in years.” The 2023 winners of two International Bluegrass Music Awards, including Vocal Group of the Year, will bring...
‘Grant Us Our Liberty’
NEWBURYPORT – William Lloyd Garrison, the outspoken abolitionist against slavery and one of this city’s most esteemed sons, would be pleased with the new interpretative sign being installed next week near his statue in Brown Square across the street from City Hall....
Troubled Town Boards Turn to Mediation
GEORGETOWN – If you have ever gone through marriage counseling with a mediator, you can appreciate what the town of Georgetown is about to go through as it tries to restore the trust between the SelectBoard (BOS) and its Conservation Commission (ConCom). The two...
Battle Brewing Over New Whittier Building
REGIONAL – A battle that may pit the residents of Haverhill against 10 other North Shore cities and towns is erupting over who will pay for the proposed new building for the Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School. Whittier Supt. Maureen Lynch is making the...