Name: Stu Stuart
First appearance: Boy Comics #107
Stu Stuart grew up on a farm in Iowa, the latest generation in a long line of farmers. Growing up in the years immediately following the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, Stu watched as his parents struggled to make ends meet and keep the farm running. He vowed to figure out a better way to do things in order to help his family, and at an early age, his keen mind turned to mechanization.
As a high school student, Stu studied practical engineering with a focus on agriculture. Upon graduating, Stu applied to numerous technical schools, and received a scholarship to attend Curtiss Tech in New York.
Moving across the country was a major change for Stu, but fortunately as an incoming Freshman, he found himself assigned a room with Chuck Chandler, a citywise native New Yorker. The two immediately became fast friends.
Though not a natural athlete, Stu’s farm-bred physique earned him the nickname “muscles,” and he soon gained a reputation for strength, toughness, and determination as a football and baseball player. He also because a top student, deft at turning theories into working, practical constructs. At one point, he proved this by devising and building a machine that could create synthetic diamonds.
Quick to anger and quick to forgive, Stu can still be a bit of a rube at times, getting both himself and Chuck into trouble with half-baked ideas. He’s also been known to make a bit of a fool of himself with girls.
Along with Chuck and fellow classmates Jabbo and Weenie Dinkler, Stu helped form the Curtiss Tech archaeology club in the second semester of his sophomore year. Accompanied by sponsors Professor Downs and Miss Grady, Stu, Jabbo, and Weenie have just returned from an epic school-sponsored summer trip to Peru to investigate an ancient burial site. As the fall of 1956 begins, Stu can’t wait to share their findings with Chuck.