As a fourth generation Pomona graduate, David Newman '84 appreciates the paths taken by his parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. As a sophomore, Newman lived in Harwood Hall, and each day he passed beneath the watchful gaze of his great-grandparents, Carl Newman and Florence White, in the 1904 class photos on the lobby wall.

"Whenever I passed, there they were," Newman says today. "It was kind of cool to find the people I had heard about from family history." And that wasn't the only obvious connection. While the youngest Newman was at Pomona, his grandfather, John Newman '31, now deceased, served on the Board of Trustees, and his grandfather, George Stone '25, was a founding trustee of nearby Pitzer College.

Newman graduated Pomona in 1984 with a philosophy degree and currently teaches college students at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. He attributes his intellectual curiosity and perseverance to his family and to Pomona College, but he thanks Professor of Philosophy Fred Sontag for his rather unique approach to life. "Fred always advocated a thoughtful approach to everything you do--as you might expect from a philosophy professor--but on the other hand, he also advocated living life fully." As adviser for the Kappa Delta fraternity, Sontag was influential in not only David Newman's life, but also in those of his father, uncle and grandfather.