Stuart Dymzarov grew up in New York and, after college, served in the Peace Corps in Colombia. When he came home he spent a short time in Virginia — living communally and apprenticing as a plumber — before settling in Madison, Wisconsin, where he began teaching in the public schools.
As a young Madison teacher, Stuart won a Ford Foundation grant to try something the city had never seen: a free, public alternative high school. It opened in 1971 with Stuart leading it. The students themselves picked its name, honoring Malcolm Shabazz — Malcolm X — a man who had remade his own life. For a school built around second chances, it was the right choice.
Stuart borrowed Malcolm's well-known call to action and gave it a classroom twist: "Education by any means necessary." For him, it was a working principle, not a motto on the wall. It meant starting with who a student actually was. It meant bending rules that got in the way of learning, and welcoming every young person before asking anything of them.
Administration was never what drew him. Before long he handed off the principal's role and went back to what he loved most — teaching math, side by side with students — until he retired in 1999. In the school's early years, when the school board questioned whether Shabazz should survive, Stuart didn't fight alone. He brought students and parents to board meetings and let them make the case in their own voices. Shabazz lasted because its community learned to stand up for it.
"Stuart was more than an educator. He was a visionary who understood that for a school to truly serve its students, it had to belong to them. He was integral in establishing the 'Shabazz Vision' — a commitment to an alternative education that prioritizes the voices of all community members and fosters an environment of mutual respect and social responsibility."
Nathan O'Shaughnessy, Principal, Malcolm Shabazz City High School
Stuart died on April 30, 2026, at 81, with his wife Marsha and their family beside him. Friends, colleagues, and generations of former students filled Atwood Music Hall to remember him — a warm, generous presence who saw promise in young people that others overlooked, and who made everyone he met feel welcome and heard.
His family has created the Stuart Dymzarov Scholarship Fund so his work with Shabazz students can go on. As Marsha put it: "He's gone, but he'll continue to help students, young people with the future."
Friends of Shabazz carries that same spirit forward. Each gift, each new community partner, each student who builds something real, wades into a river, or writes a story for a younger child — that is Stuart's work, still happening.
