1934 University grad, track and field captain Roger Newberry perished as hero as World War II Spitfire pilot (part 1 of 2)
Apr. 22—Note: Part 1 of a two-part series on 1934 University graduate and track and field team captain Roger Newberry. Part 2 will appear April 23 online and in the April 24 print edition.
With locker space at a premium as a University sophomore in the 1931-32 school year, Roger Newberry kept his coat and books in a school office.
During the fall and winter, following after-school extra-curriculars, a janitor — with the blessing of US administrators — would unlock the office so Newberry could collect his belongings.
Because his track and field practices would let out later in the spring, though, Newberry couldn't convince another janitor to unlock the door.
"I had learned some time before that the office door, as well as several others of the same type, can be opened very easily by means of a small piece of wire," Newberry wrote in a July 1932 letter. "However, I did not like to use this method, as there was a chance that some of the other boys might see how the operation was performed and use their thus-gained knowledge for a less-worthy cause."
So he quietly made a copy of the master key, used it through the spring, locked it in a safe at home and offered to give the copy to US administration once he returned from summer vacation.
Perhaps within that anecdote — among Newberry's file in the US alumni archives in Hunting Valley — is an indication of why the 1934 University graduate was so popular in his days at US and thereafter among teachers and headmaster Harry Peters.
"Roger Newberry is a boy of sterling character, most conscientious, and willing to spend his energy on the organization with which he is connected," Peters wrote in a 1934 letter of recommendation to the Yale Alumni Association of Cleveland scholarship committee. "... We have never had a boy who was more willing to do all we could expect him to do."
Not only at US, but also during World War II as a trailblazing Army Air Corps pilot, who gave what Abraham Lincoln once termed the "last full measure of devotion" in dying a hero in service to his nation.
Roger Cleveland Newberry was born July 29, 1916, one of two sons for father William and mother Mary.
The Newberry family was accomplished. Newberry's grandfather John was a paleontologist who helped found the Geological Society of America. Among the items named in John's honor are the goby fish, Lake Newberry in New York, the Newberry National Volcanic Monument in Oregon and the Newberry Butte in the Grand Canyon.
Newberry's father William founded Sandusky Cement Company, later Medusa Cement.
Up to fifth grade, Newberry attended Roxboro School in Shaker Heights.
"Perhaps you may recall a conversation we had last spring regarding my two boys Roger, 10, and Billy, 7, in connection with the University School," William Newberry stated in a letter to Peters dated Sept. 22, 1926. "It is possible that by next autumn, I may have my house built on Shelburne Road. ... If so, I should want Roger, at least, to attend your school if he can get in."
The Newberry home, located at 18900 Shelburne in Shaker Heights, had delays in its completion, and William wanted his son to spend more time at Roxboro. So Newberry didn't enter US until the fall of 1928.
Perhaps ironic in what was to follow, William filled out a physical form for his son as he entered US. On the form, it was asked, "Is there any branch of athletics or gymnastics in which you would like to have him specialize?"
"No," William wrote. "Posture faulty."
"Please mention any other facts which you think may be useful to us in dealing with your boy," the form later requested.
William responded: "Temperament sensitive but undemonstrative. Very deliberate in speech and thought but able and constructive."
William Newberry, sadly, wouldn't live to see his son develop into a US staple. He died June 6, 1930, in his Shelburne home. He was 63.
Mary, 18 years his junior, was left to raise two young boys at the height of the "Great Depression."
In order for Newberry to continue attending US, Mary sought scholarship assistance. In a 1931 application, she explained her reasoning as "indefinite suspension of dividends on part of company in which practically all of family funds are invested." One year later, Mary added "failure of income and large tax assessments" to her burden, estimating her family's income at around $3,000 per year.
Newberry received the scholarship, one of four provided by the school.
That office key wasn't the only thing on Newberry's mind in the summer of 1932 as he corresponded from his family's summer residence in Walloon Lake, Michigan.
In a letter to a "Miss Kenney," Newberry wrote: "Mr. (Allan) Grant, our track coach, and as such often inclined to narrow his views toward the interest of track and track alone, said during the past month that he was going to use what influence he had toward getting my scholarship job traded with that of Bob Carey during the school year of 1932-33. His grounds for this action were that he believed that I had to work two or three times as hard for my scholarship this year as Bob did for his, and that he thought it was time there was a trade to balance things up."
Newberry didn't want the accommodation.
"When I have a system in working order, as I shall have by the time school gets underway next fall, there will be no need for me to trade jobs with anyone," he noted. "In fact, it would be much easier if I did not trade, for if I did, an entirely different schedule would have to be worked out. ... I do not believe that any one of the scholarship jobs is harder than any other."
Kenney reassured Newberry that Peters would iron out any issue.
Newberry earned two letters in the fall in soccer and was in gymnastics club for three years, but his primary athletic endeavor at US was as a miler in track and field, in which he was a three-year letterman.
In 1933 as a junior and one of eight returning lettermen on a 57-member team, Newberry prevailed in mile at the Tri-State League meet against Buffalo Nichols and Shadyside as US won the team title. His meet-record time of 4 minutes, 45.7 seconds was one of three firsts on the season in that event, along with an 880 win in a dual with Detroit Cranbrook.
"Roger Newberry is the captain-elect of the track team," the US News staff wrote in its June 16, 1933 edition. "Newberry climaxed a brilliant season by cracking the Tri-State record in the mile."
As team captain in 1934, Newberry again won mile three times: Against Bedford and Holy Name (5:04.5), against Shaker Heights and Cleveland Heights for the Major Roy H. Smith Trophy (4:59.0) and a Tri-State meet repeat (5:06.6).
"Captain Roger Newberry led his team to victory in a thrilling race, beating by inches Sarvella of Shaker in a grueling mile," the US News reported.
"Captain Newberry and Charles Wyckoff, running in the last race of their colorful track careers at US, both triumphed in their respective (Tri-State) runs, the mile and the half-mile."
His late father, once concerned about his "faulty" posture and "sensitive" temperament, undoubtedly would have been proud.
In Part 2: Newberry heads to Yale, then into the armed forces amid World War II.