S. Newton Berliner

S. Newton Berliner VIRGINIA BEACH - S. Newton "Newt" Berliner, 86, died Jan. 10, 2009. He was born in 1922 in Yonkers, N.Y., to Morris and Freda Berliner. Newt attended Yonkers Public Schools, Columbia College and Columbia University School of Engineering, B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, 1941 (Class of '43). Drafted in Army Air Corps and assigned to NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics), precursor to NASA, at Langley Field in Hampton. He was much impressed with Tidewater and vowed to return after his discharge in 1945, which he did almost 50 years later. He returned to New York and enrolled under the GI Bill for an M.S. in industrial engineering at Columbia University. He married Martha Dresner, a graduate biology student at Columbia in 1952. They left New York City in 1953 for a less urban life in Marblehead, Mass., where he became active in town affairs. He was a member of the town Board of Health and reportedly instituted the first recycling program in Massachusetts. He worked for several defense contractors in the greater Boston area including General Electric, RCA and Sylvania and was a registered professional engineer (PE) in Massachusetts. With the waning of the defense industry, he specialized in heating and cooling for large construction companies and worked on the design of space suits for the Army Quartermaster Corp. His first retirement was in 1983 when he joined his wife in Richmond and they bought their present home in Virginia Beach. He returned to work for Parsons, Brinkerhoff on a short assignment and later the civil service as an energy conservation consultant at PWC of the Naval station, Norfolk. For 10 years, he served as the neighborhood representative to the Navy on the pollution remediation board at Little Creek Naval Station. Newt was an avid gardener and also an actor in local little theater productions. After retirement, he continued his gardening interests and was an active member and officer of the Tidewater Men's Garden Club. Volunteering included the Sea Shore State Park Visitor Center, president of the Baylake Pines Civic League and board member of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith. He leaves his wife, Martha, a retired medical school professor; a daughter, Leni of Washington, D.C.; a son, Michael, his wife Juel and beloved granddaughter Johanna of Chapel Hill, N.C.; as well as several nieces and nephews. His parents and his brother, Saul Berliner, predeceased him. Memorial contributions may be made to the charity of your choice. Services will be private.