Nancy Newman’s passion was her job – and that passion kept her from burning out, said a friend, Carol Woyar of Silverthorne.
Newman, who died Feb. 8 at age 62 at Exempla Lutheran Medical Center of a streptococcal infection, went well beyond what was expected of her as a teacher of children with severe learning disabilities and behavior disorders.
Newman, a New York native, got the job at Denver’s Laradon Hall after working at IBM in Michigan, earning a degree in anthropology and sociology at Sweet Briar College in Virginia and substitute teaching in Jefferson County Schools.
But teaching the handicapped was her niche, said her friends and her husband, Jim.
Newman was devoted to the kids – bringing them unusual foods, taking them to the Butterfly Pavilion, celebrating Chinese New Year, teaching them the seasons with outdoor trips and bringing toys and other presents back from New York, where she and her husband had an apartment.
“The kids made leaps and bounds,” said Woyar, a former teacher at Laradon. “She looked at each as an individual and tried to help them meet their full potential. She wanted them to be members of society.”
“She was incredibly creative and an inspiration to us, encouraging us to do our best,” said Lisa Farrell of Aurora, a Laradon teacher. While many teachers get “burned out, (Newman) was able to laugh at frustrations in teaching,” Farrell said.
Newman haunted library sales, bringing in bags of books, and eventually worked on establishing the first library at Laradon, which is in north Denver.
She liked her work so much, she never submitted expense reports, said her husband, adding, “Truth be known, Laradon would never have had to pay her, and she would still have loved the job.”
Nancy Cant was born April 3, 1943. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Sweet Briar and her master’s in special education and severe needs at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. Her husband will accept her degree at ceremonies in May.
While at Sweet Briar, she met Jim Newman, a student at the University of Virginia, and they married Sept. 9, 1967.
In addition to her husband, she is survived by her son, James Newman of New York, and her sister, Elizabeth Noyes of Greenwich, Conn.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at 303-820-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com.
