Robert D. Stuart

Robert Douglas Stuart Jr. (April 26, 1916 – May 8, 2014), referred to as R. Douglas Stuart Jr. when young and as Robert D. Stuart Jr. when older, was the son of Quaker Oats Company co-founder Robert Douglas Stuart, the founder of the America First Committee in 1940, the CEO of Quaker Oats from 1966 to 1981, and United States Ambassador to Norway from 1984 to 1989.

Stuart was born in Winnetka, Illinois on April 26, 1916, the son of R. Douglas Stuart. His grandfather, Robert Stuart was one of the founders of the Quaker Oats Company. He was educated at Princeton University, graduating with a B.A. in 1937. He then attended Yale Law School.

On September 4, 1940, while a law student, Stuart organized the America First Committee to support enforcement of the Neutrality Acts of 1930s and to oppose United States intervention in World War II. Other students who joined Stuart's committee included Gerald Ford, Sargent Shriver, and Potter Stewart. The America First Committee asked Robert E. Wood, chairman of Sears, Roebuck and Company, to become their leader. They later asked Charles Lindbergh to serve as their spokesman. At its height, the America First Committee may have had as many as 800,000 members in 650 chapters. The America First Committee was disbanded shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.