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He was born into a family of poor, uneducated migrant farm workers. As a child, he delivered newspapers, picked beans and potatoes, and mowed lawns to help put dinner on the table. As an African-American male teen in the 1960s, chances were slim of Willie Newman getting a college degree, much less complete post-graduate work, but that’s exactly what he did.

Touched deeply by the death of his third grade teacher during childbirth, Newman earned a medical degree, specializing in OB/GYN, and delivered more than 10,000 babies in the greater Orlando area – and became a lawyer during the process -- before succumbing to cancer on Jan. 13. He was 53.

“Willie’s caring nature and service to his community as well as his warm smile will live with me forever,” said Dr. Richard Bragg, president of the Seminole County Medical Society.

So weak from advanced-stage cancer in early January that he couldn’t attend the Seminole Community College Heritage Jubilee during which he was honored, friends and family lauded his work as an obstetrician and philanthropist, and his never-ending desire to learn more.

A native of Sanford, Newman found a mentor early on in Dr. Edwin Epstein, the family doctor, who helped him overcome a stuttering problem. “I was teased unmercifully by kids and adults,” recalled Newman. “Dr. Epstein gave me hints and clues as to how to control and overcome my stuttering.”

After graduating from Florida State University in 1976, Newman headed to Tulane Medical School, where his medical education was paid for through a combination of scholarships, grants and loans. He received assistance from the United States Public Health Service (USPHS), which required him to provide services to underprivileged patients. After graduating in the top 10 percent of his class and serving his residency at Parkland Hospital, Newman returned to a clinic in Sanford. “He wanted to come home and take care of the people who might not get quality medical care if he were not here,” Annye Refoe, dean of arts and sciences at Seminole Community College, told the Orlando Sentinel.

For more than two decades, Newman delivered 400 to 500 babies every year while also serving as chief of surgery and a trustee at Central Florida Regional Hospital in Sanford. He was a Greater Sanford Chamber of Commerce board member and mentored students at Seminole High’s Academy of Health Careers in Sanford. He was famous for the “ride-alongs” he created in 1984, driving at-risk children around in his fancy car at their parents’ request as he talked about ways they could better themselves. Many of those students became doctors and lawyers.
Newman, who also worked with the Seminole County Health Department and provided prenatal care for indigent women, was among the first Seminole County doctors to push for improving infant-mortality rates. Since implementing Seminole County’s Improved Pregnancy Outcome Program, the county’s infant morbidity and mortality rates have sharply reduced.

During this busy time, Newman and his wife, Dr. Joetta Bishop Newman, raised a family. Their daughter, Courtney, is a Boston University graduate now working as a psychiatric rehab counselor in Atlanta. Their son, Chris, who will graduate from Harvard in June, has already been accepted to the University of Florida School of Medicine. Their youngest child, Nick, is a ninth-grader at Seminole High.

Sadly, just when his career was reaching a pinnacle, Newman was diagnosed last March with cholangiocarcinoma, an extremely rare form of cancer affecting the biliary ducts inside the liver. “Being a physician and understanding what disease is makes it a little unpleasant,” he admitted last fall, vowing not to “let it become my life.” To maintain some normalcy while undergoing treatment for the illness, Newman continued seeing patients and performing surgery until
it was no longer feasible.

“I’ve known Willie for 22 years and there is no finer physician. He’s one of a kind … innovative, an immaculate surgeon and has always had time not only for his peers, but special time for his patients,” said Dr. John Robertson, past president of the Seminole County Medical Society.

Dr. Clyde Climer, who met Newman in 1984, called him a remarkable person and an excellent gynecologic surgeon who had “a vast fund of knowledge and a charismatic personality that is effective with patients.”

“Most patients that have known him for one visit call him a lifelong friend,” he said. “He’s an exemplary doctor…who overcame insurmountable obstacles to achieve his goals and become not just a physician, but probably the top of the line best physician one could become.”

A memorial service for Newman was held Jan. 26 at the Annunciation Catholic Church in Altamonte Springs. Last fall, the Seminole County Medical Society Foundation established a perpetuating scholarship in Newman’s honor. Those interested in making donations to the scholarship fund may send checks to the Foundation at P.O. Box 951450 in Lake Mary, Fla. (32795).



February 2008

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