Bob Newman

   Hello everyone, following what a few others have already written, here's my story.  It's definitely not comprehensive.

 

   I served in the Peace Corps from 1964 to 1966.  I came to New Delhi to meet Bruce Bean one time, but I was stationed in Lucknow, a state capitol on the plains of north India.  I met my wife, Sudha, then.  I was supposed to be a "chicken man", encouraging villagers to produce more eggs and chickens, but Washington had sent us to an area where almost everyone was vegetarian plus raising animals to kill was considered extremely low caste.  SNAFU.  I got into other activities like adult literacy and starting youth clubs. 

 

   After I finished graduate school with a Ph.D in Anthropology and Organizational Behavior in 1972, I entered the world of Unemployment.  After a year of that, I started to get some teaching jobs, and wound up in Australia, as many of my classmates know.  I stayed there for 16 years, teaching Anthropology and courses about India at La Trobe University in Melbourne.  I made a lot of friends and enjoyed Australia very much.  I was able to travel, did research in India and Mauritius, and I taught in China and South Korea too.  I was lucky to have Julie McKay (MHS class of '59) in Melbourne.  We've remained friends up to now.  But my dad died in 1989 (my mother had died in '71) and left me the house here in Marblehead.  I could sell it and remain in Oz forever, or quit the job and try my luck back at home.  I chose the latter.

   Sudha and I have been married for almost 49 years now.  We didn't have children.  That's why we were able to uproot ourselves and move back to town.  If we'd had kids they would have been Aussies and opposed to leaving Down Under for unknown (to them) America. 

   I wound up teaching English as a Second Language to immigrants in Lynn (and also for two years in a factory in Beverly).  Except for the Cambodians in Beverly, almost all the students came from the former USSR.  I have enjoyed watching them succeed in America, buy homes, put their kids through college, and travel the world.  I am still doing that today, but just part time. 

 

   But, I didn't give up my academic pursuits, I just didn't get paid for them!  I continued writing papers, going to some conferences, and published a second academic book in 2001.  I also wrote a book called "Marblehead Traveller" in which I told a few stories from my life growing up in Marblehead and living abroad.  You can find it on Amazon. 

 

   Life is a mosaic, made up of so many parts and different colors, how can I describe it?  I like to read, I'm into photography a fair bit, still like travelling, eating various ethnic foods as well as BLTs down at the Muffin Shop or chowder at the Barnacle.  Fried clams and beer!  Now there's a great subject. 

 

   I'm very upset about the way the country is going, not that I'm so enamored of any one party, but......you know, I'm worried about our future.  Having lived overseas for around 21 years, I appreciate America all the more.  I love living in Marblehead, being close to my own past, the memories all around, feeling so proud of a beautiful town with a special character.  I hope we all can leave it to the following generations without losing that special something, without losing "our America". 

 

   I like to photograph reflections.  Not only does "reflection" mean thinking about stuff, but reflections offer a different view of common scenes and objects.  You see the world in a different way.  Perhaps what you see is the way things "might be" but are not.  I think about my life, our lives, our town, and our country in the same way.  What could have been, but is not.  Sometimes that alternate reality is beautiful, but after all it's only a mirage in a photo.  I've lived the way I could. 

 

Hope to see everyone who's coming in August, and best wishes to all who can't make it.

 

   Bob