Obituary : John L. Newbold
Published: May 29, 2008
John Lowe (Jock) Newbold of New York City and Chilmark, formerly of Summit, N.J., died on April 12 from complications of acute leukemia. He was 72. He is survived by his wife Judy Bourne Newbold and children Jennifer Newbold and her husband Ned Freeman; Tim Newbold and his wife Lisa Yang; Michael Newbold and his wife Beth Newbold; and five grandchildren: Kate, Nick, Carly, Molly, and Julia Newbold. He is also survived by his sister Marianne Newbold Parthenais, dozens of nieces and nephews, and was predeceased by two younger brothers, Fleming and Nicholas Wilkins Newbold. A memorial service was held at Grace Church in New York City on April 18.
He was born and raised in Washington, D.C., son of John L. Newbold Jr. and Katharine Wilkins Newbold. He attended Potomac and St. Alban's School in Washington and graduated from St. Paul's School, Concord, N.H. He earned a B.S. at Yale in 1957 and an M.B.A. from NYU in 1963. After serving as an officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve, he joined First National City Bank (later Citigroup) in 1960 and remained there until retiring in 1997. From 1985, he was in charge of its Global Shipping Division and earlier had been corporate banking head in Tokyo and country head for Singapore and Malaysia. In his retirement, Jock was a consultant to the shipping industry and served on a variety of local and international corporate and nonprofit boards.
In the late 1960s, Jock and his young family ventured across the Sound on their first voyage to Martha's Vineyard, a never-to-be-forgotten July day trip to Chilmark to visit close friends. The day was gray, gloomy, drizzling, foggy, chilled. The friends' rented cottage was snug, dark, over-stuffed with many small moist children and several large wet dogs. This family outing ended with a hair-raising ride to catch the last ferry back, arriving in Woods Hole, and realizing that the family car had been parked in Falmouth. Jock still had a lot to learn about travel to and from the Vineyard, but even so, he considered the day a complete success. He thought Chilmark was perfect and rented a house nearby for the following summer, the summer after that and so on, eventually buying a house on Abel's Hill in 1978.
He enjoyed watching his growing family's growing love for this place. He was thrilled to see each new generation discover the beach and its treasures. He savored the time for hours of reading, endless friendly debates on matters international and local, spirited tennis matches, and early mornings rowing his shell on Chilmark Pond. In short, he never stopped thinking of Chilmark as heaven on earth. Later this summer, he will be buried there, in Abel's Hill Cemetery.
Donations in his memory may be made to: The Vineyard Energy Project, vineyardenergyproject.org. or NYPH-Leukemia Fighters Fund c/o Gail J. Roboz MD, 520 East 70th St., Starr 340A, New York, NY 10021.
