Jim Newburn - Obituary
March 5, 1934 - October 11, 2017
Dad, Dancer, Developer ... and, overall, a kind & gentle soul
In early October, Jim Newburn, a long-time resident of Howard County, Maryland, passed away peacefully in his sleep at the age of 83.
An engineering job in optical research at Westinghouse brought Jim and his family to Columbia, Maryland, in 1971, where he and Eileen Newburn, his ex-wife, raised their three children, Jessie, Rebecca and David. He became a land developer in the mid-1970s and ran that business until his death.
Born in Midland, Michigan, Jim moved as a child to several states as his father’s job in the Army Corps of Engineers had the family traveling to job sites, most notably in Idaho and California. He studied and loved physics, getting an undergraduate degree from Pomona College and master’s degree in physics from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
He was an avid dancer, where he met Eileen in Ann Arbor, and together they co-ran the Columbia International Folk Dancers group in the ‘70s. He went contra dancing almost every Friday night for the last 30 years. He also regularly enjoyed waltz, zydeco, and swing dancing. This love of dance and the dance community led him to purchase and manage Buffalo Gap, a beautiful dance camp in West Virginia.
He was known for his kindness and gentle spirit. He had a deep curiosity for learning about science and a love for holistic and alternative health knowledge. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in his name to The Thunderbolts Project (https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/), a group whose science and perspective he much admired.
Information about the memorial service events can be found at http://bit.ly/jim-newburn