Missouri History ~ Biography

Joseph Newman

Business Leader

1936 ~ 2006

Joseph “Joe” Newman, Joplin, Missouri stockbroker, loan broker, supermarket owner and industrial developer, was born April 26,1936, in Enid, Oklahoma, where his father, Sol Newman Jr., was general manager of a Newman Mercantile Company branch department store.

Sol Newman Sr. and his brothers founded the Newman Mercantile Company over 100 years ago. It was one of the region’s largest department stores.

Joe moved to Joplin in 1949, where his father Sol headed Newman’s Department Store as general manager. The store was then located at Sixth Street and Main, a Joplin landmark, now leased to the City of Joplin as a City Hall.

Joe attended North Junior High School. While a ninth grader, Joe’s father provided him with a Kansas driver’s license, although Joe was a resident of Missouri, and an antique Ford roadster, which Joe drove to school daily, picking up his girlfriend Sarah Van Fleet, daughter of Joplin lawyer Herbert Van Fleet, at her home, along the way. At the time, the legal age for possessing a Missouri driver’s license was 16.

Joe attended Joplin High School, where he was a varsity athlete and associated with Hercules Club and Phi Lambda Epsilon social fraternities.

During his sophomore year, Joe reportedly was expelled from Joplin High School for one day for allegedly engaging in inappropriate conduct in the JHS hallways, conduct he was ordered by senior members to engage in while a pledge of Phi Lambda Epsilon fraternity.

While Joe was a senior at Joplin High School, he and his Phi Lambda Epsilon fraternity brothers hosted a rush party at Cunningham Park, passing out beer to 14-year-old sophomore male students. The fraternity, whose alumni members included most of the members of the Joplin Rotary Club, was later declared an outlaw fraternity and eventually disbanded.

While attending Joplin High School, Joe worked after school in the men’s clothing department of Newman’s Department Store. During the summer months, he and his cousin, John Newman, modeled skimpy brief swim trunks at Twin Hills Country Club swimming pool. Joe’s cousin John later studied acting at Pasadena Playhouse.

During his senior year of high school, Joe’s father purchased a brand new convertible for Joe as a graduation present, which Joe reportedly totaled soon after.

After graduating as valedictorian of Joplin High School in 1954, Joe attended Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, graduating in 1958.

After marrying Sara Van Fleet, daughter of Joplin lawyer Herbert Van Fleet, Joe Newman continued his education at The Wharton School of Finance in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, graduating with an MBA.

In 1960, the family moved to New York City, where Joe began the management-training program at Macy’s flagship store, where he was appointed assistant to the president.

Joe and his family returned to Joplin in 1963 to work in the family department store, until a cousin William Schwab replaced his father as general manager and primary owner of the store. Meanwhile, Joe’s mother, Helen Newman, reportedly committed suicide.

In 1968, Joseph Newman was appointed manager of Ramsay’s Department Store.

Joe and his father soon purchased and managed an agency commissioned by Farm and Home Savings & Loan at Fourth & Main Street.

In 1975, Joe left the retail business to pursue a career as a stockbroker, representing Stifel Nicolaus. Joe was a representative for Massachusetts Mutual and Guardian Life Insurance Companies.

Joe also ventured into the grocery business, culminating in the development of Food-4-Less grocery stores with two partners-friends.

Joe served as president of the Chamber of Commerce in 1979. He was a founding board member and president of the Joplin Industrial Authority, working with city and state officials on bond issues to purchase land for the first industrial park in Joplin.

Joe was a founding board member of the Joplin business and Industrial Development Corporation, an enterprise formed to promote economic development, serving as its president for 12 years.

Joe was involved in the planning and establishment of the Joplin-Webb City Industrial Park and the Crossroads Center Business and Distribution Park. He initiated Joplin’s speculative shell building program and spearheaded a task force to help fund the construction of Joplin’s first shell building, followed by the building of two additional buildings, both over 100,000 square feet, something a city the size of Joplin had never before attempted. Seven buildings have ultimately been built with a new shell building, breaking ground in July 2006. Newman’s associates claim the program had generated 5,000 jobs and the expansion of 15 firms in the area with $52 million in payroll added annually at the time of his death.

Joe Newman served as a board member of the Hawthorne Foundation, statewide economic development group, representing southwest Missouri. In 1989 the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce awarded him Outstanding Citizen of the Year for his many contributions to the economic development of the city.

The Joplin Chamber of Commerce named the Innovation Center at Fourth and Pennsylvania the Joseph Newman Business and Technology Innovation Center.

Joe Newman was past chairman and director of Freeman Hospital and a director at St. John’s Regional Medical Center. He was a board member of Pro Musica Joplin, founded by a relative by the name of Schwab.

Joe Newman was a founding member of the RVIII Foundation, a support group for the Joplin schools and a member of the Missouri Southern State University Foundation. He served as president of the Joplin Rotary Club. And was a member of St. Philip’s Episcopal Church.

Joseph “Joe” Newman died on September 20, 2006 at National Health Care, a nursing home facility in Joplin, following a lengthy illness.

Joe was preceded in death by his father, Sol Newman Jr.; his mother, Helen Newman; and his youngest sister, Helen Jean Newman. A sister, Julia “Judy” Newman Marks, survives.

NOTE: Following the death of his mother Helen, Joe’s father married Ladonna Sanders, divorced wife of Miller Sanders. Ladonna Sanders and Joe’s mother, Helen Newman, were involved in the Community Concert Association prior to his mother’s death. Ladonna was also active in Joplin Little Theater productions and briefly resided in Hollywood, California. Her ex-husband Miller Sanders was president of First State Bank of Joplin.

Other family survivors include wife, Sarah; two sons, Michael Newman and Joseph Newman, M. D., daughter Leigh Newman Frogge and her husband Dr. Frogge, a urologist, and a step sister.

Joe and Sarah Newman had 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild at the time of his death.

NOTE: Joseph A. Newman, M. D., was named co-defendant in a malpractice lawsuit filed by surviving family members of a woman that died while in his care at St. John’s Hospital. Although the plaintiffs were awarded $8 million, the judgment was later reduced to $4 million in a Missouri appellate court ruling.

Dartmouth College Memorial The Joplin-Carthage Times

Missouri History More 816 Richmond Road

The John Snyder Shepherd Memorial

Fraternity Brother of Joseph Newman

St. Philip’s Episcopal Church Youth Leader

~ Honor Student ~ U. S. Army Veteran ~

Died Homesless ~ Seizure Disorder

Was Tortured by Neighbors During Childhood