TCNJ

26 The College of New Jersey Magazine ROBERT NEWMAN '62 BUILT TO FLY ROBERT NEWMAN'S PASSION for aviation began in childhood, building model airplanes with his father. But the first time he actually flew a plane, the earth unfolded beneath him like nothing he'd seen before: winding waterways, the contours of the land, familiar geography transformed from above. "To be up there in the sky and looking down, everything looks like a portrait," he says. A career educator, Newman majored in industrial arts at Trenton State College and earned a master's in education in 1963. He was working as an administrator at the Ocean County Vocational-Technical School in Brick, New Jersey, when a staff member who owned a plane invited him for a ride. "That hooked me on a lifetime of aviation," says Newman, who went on to get his pilot's license in 1979. His enthusiasm flew even higher. While studying for his doctorate in school administration, Newman craved something more hands-on than the paperwork that consumed his days. "I needed a distraction," he says. He found it in building airplanes. Only this time, it was the full-size versions. Drawing on his industrial arts training, Newman started with a fiberglass kit. More than a dozen planes followed. THE PASSION FOLLOWERS Six alumni dedicate their time to the things that matter. COLLEGE IS OFTEN SEEN AS THE PLACE where career wisdom takes root. But for some students, those nuggets of knowledge lead to passions that define them well after the workday ends. We introduce you here to some alumni builders, creators, and literal life savers who have found meaning and success in pursuits beyond their jobs. Robert Newman '62 is most at home around planes.

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