Fifty-year reunion offers payback

+ Fifty-year reunion offers payback
When Lakewood Ranch resident Thomas Newman returned to his alma mater for a 50th reunion, he took home more than memories.

He captured a new honor.

Newman, a 1964 graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, received the Herbert F. Taylor Award for Distinguished Service to his university during a recent 50th reunion celebration.

Since his graduation, Newman has served as a member of the WPI Alumni Fund Board and his 25th and 40th anniversary gift steering committees.

The award is named for Herbert Foster Taylor, class of 1912, who came back to WPI as a civil engineering professor and later served as the university’s first full-time alumni secretary-treasurer. By establishing initiatives such as the Alumni Fund, Taylor established himself as one of WPI’s greatest alumni leaders.