Posted by Charlie Shaw on May 25, 2011:

By Gary Taylor, Orlando Sentinel 3:03 p.m. EDT, May 10, 2011 Donald F. Newnham retired from the city of Altamonte Springs more than a decade ago, but projects he undertook as the city's public works director are still very much a part of residents' everyday life. Newnham, 79, died Thursday of cancer resulting from exposure to Agent Orange while serving in the military. While communities across the nation struggle with water conservation and reclaimed water issues, Newnham put Altamonte Springs at the forefront 30 years ago when he helped launch one of the nation's first dual-distribution systems for potable and reclaimed water, City Manager Frank Martz said. "Mr. Newnham was decades ahead of his time," Martz said. While Newnham gets credit for the reclaimed water system called APRICOT - short for A Prototype Realistic Community of Today - he told the Orlando Sentinel when he retired in 1997 that the idea came from Frontinus, a public works commissioner in Rome about 70 A.D. Frontinus observed that the city's use of unclean water for irrigation and cleaning public places was a practical method of reclaiming water rather than wasting it. After Newnham read about Frontinus during a flight from Bermuda, he used the concept to launch APRICOT. Newnham also was instrumental in expanding a municipal treatment plant into a regional wastewater treatment facility during his 20 years with the city, Martz said. Newnham graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1954. He ranked second in the class in academics and fourth in order of general merit. The day after graduation he married Elaine, his wife of 57 years. Newnham chose to be commissioned in the Army Corps of Engineers and after his initial troop assignments he attended Purdue University, where he received a master's degree in electrical engineering. He later was assigned as an assistant professor in the Department of Electricity at the Military Academy for four years. Following a one-year tour in Vietnam, he returned to the academy to serve as the West Point Post Engineer for three years during a time when major new construction of Washington Hall and the barracks complex were undertaken. Following two one-year assignments to Cambodia and then Fort McPherson, Newnham retired in 1974 as a lieutenant colonel and moved to Maitland. Newnham was a talented wood worker, recalls his daughter, Barbara Kiser of Orlando. He would make everything from a table and chairs to a large China cabinet. Then he would turn around and make the same pieces of furniture in miniature for Kiser and her twin sister to put in their dollhouses, she said. After retiring from Altamonte Springs, Newnham traveled the world, with most of the trips supporting his wife's business of selling figurines at dog shows, Kiser said. Besides his wife and daughter Barbara, Newnham is survived by daughter Deborah Hoyle of Casselberry and two grandchildren. Casket Gallery and Cremation Service, Orlando, is in charge of arrangements. gtaylor@tribune.com or 407-391-9681 Copyright A(c) 2011, Orlando Sentinel

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