Andrew Stewart Cobb

Andrew Stewart Cobb, age 69, passed away on August 4, 2017 from a short battle with pancreatic cancer. Stewart, or Stu to his close friends and family, was born to Roger and Queechy Cobb in Marietta, Georgia on April 24, 1948. His father was a lawyer and his mother came from a long line of teachers, which is likely where he attained his thirst for knowledge to become the self-proclaimed smartest man on earth. He spent his early summers in Bristol, Georgia where he was used for child labor in the tobacco fields and fell asleep to the sounds of cicadas on the sleeping porch. Throughout his youth, he and his buddies spent every available minute in the woods or on the water. He was a graduate of Marietta High School and spent a short time at the University of Georgia before his professors decided that a stint in the US Navy would enhance his future academic career. After he proudly served his country aboard the USS Independence during the Vietnam War, he graduated Summa Cum “Latte” from Georgia State University with a degree in Finance. In 1972 he married his childhood sweetheart, Jackie, with whom he had been in love since the third grade. A short time later, a call from the Southern Company cut short a hunting trip by offering him a position as a Financial Analyst. Stu and Jackie had two children, Amy and Andrew, with whom they shared their love of travel and adventure. A third child, Brian, took up residence every night and weekend he could, particularly when there was a planned hunting trip or other exploit in which he could be involved. Stu did partake in household duties, the most important of which was bringing home KFC every Wednesday night when it was his turn to “cook”. He never moved far from his childhood stomping grounds and raised his children next door to his parents and sister, because he knew even then it took a village to raise a family. While he was a homebody, he also began traveling the world and sharing that with his family. Rather than take the kids to Disney World, he drug them to places such as Alaska, Washington DC, New York City and as many national parks as he could reach including Yellowstone, Glacier, Rainer and Denali. For work, he traveled even further, all over the county and as far as Australia while expanding his love of great food and culture. After a very successful career as a “bidness man” he retired at the age of 49 and spent the majority of his time keeping his children out of trouble, fabricating projects for him and his wife to accomplish once she returned home from work, and growing an outstanding beard. Once his wife tired of their projects and his beard, Stu took up a hobby of selling Real Estate so he could stay in shape in order to maintain his self-proclaimed status as the perfect human specimen, and stake out places for his sons Andrew and Brian to hunt. Once his hunting partners went off to college his Real Estate hobby slowed down and he purchased a home in St. Simons where he split time with his home in Kennesaw. Realizing he had yet to find his perfect retirement home he continued looking until he found Shangri-La, his diamond in the rough which lies just below the fall line in southeast Georgia. The week he closed on his farm, his wife Jackie traveled to Italy where she died of a brain aneurism. The next few years Stu searched for happiness, some of which he found in bringing out the shine in Shangri-La with his sons Andrew and Brian. He began to have grandchildren and found more happiness in sharing his farm and his love of nature with them, and becoming a strong part of their village. He continued polishing his farm, using his sons as labor while he “Stu-pervised”. His grandchildren benefited from that labor and spent many days swimming in the lake, driving the “Stu-Ranger”, and taking night rides to look for animals. Stu added to the village in 2012 by marrying his wife Karen, presumably before she knew what she was getting herself into, and started living happily ever after. While his marriage to Karen was short, the love was big, and the two of them continued traveling and discovering Stu’s “softer side”. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in April of 2017. During the last days of his life he was surrounded by close family and friends, listening to one of his favorite books, A Sand County Almanac, the words of conservation and beauty closing the final chapter of his life. Stu is survived by his wife, Karen; children Amy and husband Chris, Andrew and wife Catherine and Brian and wife Toni; grandchildren Jacqueline, Caroline, Jasper, Andi and Brooks; siblings Roger and Carolyn and many other loving friends and extended family members. Stewart was predeceased by his wife Jackie and his parents, Queechy and Roger. A celebration of life will be held on Saturday, August 12th at 2:00 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church of Marietta and the family will receive friends one hour prior to the service in the Church Parlor. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to either fund pancreatic cancer research via https://www.pancan.org/, or to the Jackie and Stewart Cobb Memorial Scholarship which funds students at Kennesaw State University who are pursuing a future in early childhood education. Online donations to the Scholarship fund can be made at https://community.kennesaw.edu/CobbScholarship. Checks can be made out to the KSU Foundation, with “Cobb Memorial Scholarship” included in the memo line, and mailed to: 1000 Chastain Rd NW, MD# 9101 Kennesaw, GA 30144

Andrew Stewart Cobb

April 24, 1948 - August 4, 2017