Obituary: Newman, John Theodore

John Theodore Newman, 81, died June 4, 2025

John Theodore Newman was born into a loving, supportive family. He had a happy childhood, growing up with family playmates, his brother Tommy who was a year older and his twin sister, Betsy. They lived in Cottage City in Prince George’s County. John had an older brother, Stu, and an older sister, Ann. Their father worked for the U.S. Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C.

When John was in the fifth grade, the family moved to Carole Highlands in Hyattsville, close to Wallace Memorial Church. The three younger children could walk up the hill to Sunday School by themselves. About two years later, John attended Rollingcrest Junior High School and then High Point High School, where he played football. He graduated in 1961.

He always wanted to be a pilot, so he joined the United States Air Force after graduation. Because he wore glasses, he was ineligible to train as a pilot. Instead, he was trained as a radio repairman and was stationed at an airbase near Seville, Spain. He bought a little red Spitfire sports car and had it shipped back to the states when he was discharged. He attended the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, majoring in industrial engineering and joined Acacia Fraternity, a group of Christian young men. He graduated in 1968

He was employed with Westinghouse and Vitro in Maryland. In the summer of 1978, not liking his job, he quit and taught Vacation Bible School (VBS) at Wallace Church for two weeks.

As a passionate sportsman, he enjoyed spelunking (caving), rappelling off bridges, rock climbing, hiking, golfing, sailing and skiing. He was a skater and rink guard. He was an avid swimmer, scuba diver and Red Cross lifeguard. He enjoyed high diving and could do a one-armed handstand before diving into the pool.

When VBS was over, he met his future wife, Carol, in the Wallace Social Hall, on June 30, 1973, introduced by Margaret Davis. Margaret invited the two to her home for lemonade and donuts and insisted John take Carol home. Soon John and Carol were dating, and John proposed after he was offered a job with Northrop Services, Inc. He and Carol were married July 6, 1974, making their home in Adelphi, MD.

In 1978 they moved to central Florida, where Northrop had a contract with the US Naval Airbase in Orlando. Carol had been married before and had a daughter, Cynthia (Cindy), who John adopted a year before they moved. Soon they had two more daughters, Julia Ruth (1979) and Sarah Louise (1981).

In Orlando, John earned his private pilot’s license. He then joined the South Seminal Flying Club. On Father’s Day in 1979, barely a month old, Julia took her first Plane trip with Johnas the pilot of a Cessna. She slept the whole time. In 1982, he flew the family to Maryland to visit, making a stop in Roanoke, VA. He flew near Cape Kennedy in Florida and flew Cindy to her college in South Carolina for an interview.

John worked with Florida Social Services for about a year after Northrop lost the military contract. Eventually, John found a job with the U.S. Department of the Navy (Navy Annex). At the time, it was located across from the Pentagon. Carol and the girls stayed in Florida until the end of the school year, and in 1989 the family moved back to Maryland where the girls were able to get to know their Maryland relatives better, especially their grandparents. Cindy graduated from college and was already married.

As a member of Wallace Church in the ‘70’s, John served the Lord as a Christian Service Brigade Leader, VBS teacher, Deacon and helper at Camp Hemlock, near Wardensville, WV. John and Carol rejoined Wallace Church in 1990. In the years that followed, John taught fifth and sixth grade Sunday school., helped with VBS and various church camps, drove the church van, did “Tough Mudder,” and served on the missions committee, which he chaired for several years. In March 2016, he traveled to Burkina Faso with others from Wallace to celebrate the publishing of the New Testament into Kaansa, which was translated by Wallace supported missionaries, Cathie and Stuart Showalter. John was always ready to help whenever help was needed.

John had time to go back to school to earn a second bachelor’s degree in business and finance at the University of Maryland, University College.

John also learned speed reading and sped through Tom Clancy’s and James Patterson’s books, authors he loved reading, usually completing a novel in two days. His favorite genres were adventure, spy and military fiction.

John and his family belonged to the Calverton Pool. At the pool he became known as “Mr. Splash” by many, and children always begged him to do his “tsunami dives,” even after surviving Covid pneumonia in 2021. He kept roller skating once a week for the nine months the pool was closed and kept his roller skates in his car.

John began writing his first book before he retired, and self-published through Amazon a trilogy of e-books: Searise, The Chaos Begins in 2023, Searise Exodus in 2014, and Searise Bedlam in 2017. When his first book was printed hardbound in 2016, a coworker at the Washington Navy Yard designed the cover.

After forty years working in the Department of the Navy, John officially retired in 2011.

He loved to travel, and travelled extensively both for Pleasure and work, visiting the Grand Canyon, Seattle, the four major Hawaiian Islands, Kuwait, Rome, Paris, Normandy and the Bay of Fundi. He travelled across the country twice, the first time with a group of single friends. The second time was watching one of his grandsons graduate. He was able to see four of his ten grandchildren graduate from high school.

John had many friends and had a wonderful journey on his way to heaven.