Charles Newton; Caltech Educator, Assistant to Its President

Charles Newton, 87, former Caltech educator and assistant to the university’s president. A native of Frankfort, Ky., Newton was educated at the Art Institute of Chicago and the universities of Illinois, Kentucky and Chicago. He first worked as a newspaper feature writer, advertising agency writer and radio director in Chicago. From 1941 to 1946, Newton headed special publications at the U.S. government’s radiation laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later wrote a history of the war work there titled “Five Years.” He produced a monthly Air Force magazine called Radar, patented a method of photographing radar screens for aircraft, and produced a three-volume encyclopedia on microwave radar. He was also instrumental in the publication of the 28-volume Radiation Laboratory Series. For his wartime work, Newton received the Presidential Certificate of Appreciation. Later at Caltech, he served as special assistant to the school’s late President Lee DuBridge from 1948 to 1966. Newton lectured in English at Caltech until 1975. On March 2 in Gresham, Ore.