Find all Newton Legacy Series stories below:
- Remembering Dr. James Fawcett: From Talented Clarinetist to Noted Herpetologist
- Bykerk Remembered as Exemplary Faculty, Life-Changing Teacher
- UNO's Great Gildersleeve
- The Legacy of the Herbarium: Science, History, Beauty, Adventure
- Menard's Legacy: Teaching from the Heart
About John M. Newton
Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences for twenty years, from 1974 to 1994, Jack Newton helped to shape the college, the campus, and tens of thousands of students' lives.
Born and raised in Schenectady, NY, Newton attended Union College, earning his B.S. in 1951. For his gradute work, he went to Ohio State University, finishing his Ph.D. in Psychology in 1955. He met his wife Elizabeth Ann Slattery (Ann Newton) while at Ohio State and the first of their three children was born in 1957.
His first research assignment after graduation was as a Lieutenant with the United States Army Medical Research Laboratory in Fort Knox, Kentucky, where he served for two years. Upon leaving the Army in 1957, he took a research position with the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation at Groton, Connecticut. Both in the army and at General Dynamics, Newton helped design controls for nuclear submarines and other equipment, working on issues of human interface.
In 1960, he was offered a teaching position with the Psychology program in the Department of Philosophy, Psychology, and Religion at the then Municipal University of Omaha (OU). The career move meant a substantial reduction in salary, but, according to wife Ann, his "real love" was teaching.
Seven short years later, he was full professor and chair of the Department of Psychology. Newton did much to help shape UNO's Psychology Program, adding significantly to the curriculum. Research of any sort was a rare thing in the early years of UNO. Newton brought OU its first research grant in the early 1960s from the National Science Foundation and soo after that, another grant from the United States Office of Education.
As one of only a handful of OU faculty involved in research, Newton became particularly useful in negotiations surrounding the blending of Omaha faculty with Lincoln faculty during the formation of the University of Nebraska system in 1968. He served both on the governance committee and the graduate studies committee for the transition.
In his 20 years as a leader of UNO's oldest and largest college, Dean Newton was instrumental in the development of a number of programs including the cooperative PhD program in Psychology, the International Studies Program, and the College of Information Science and Technology.
Jack Newton retired in 1999 and was appointed Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Dean Emeritus of the College of Arts and Sciences. He passed away at 82 in December of 2011 after battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease.