Faces of Rutgers
Harold Newmark: 85-year-old researcher has a message about life and work
Archived article from Sep 22, 2003
By Bill Haduch
When a cancer expert is 85 years old and still working hard in his field, his words and actions have special credibility. Lunch with Harold Newmark, for example, not only provides insight into his two separate health-related careers over six decades, but inspires some new thoughts about eating — like savoring a plate of salad-bar kidney beans one bean at a time.
"Picking at my food is one of my favorite physical activities," joked Newmark, a resident of Maplewood and world-renowned cancer prevention researcher. Since 1987 he has been an adjunct professor in the Susan Lehman Cullman Laboratory for Cancer Research, department of chemical biology in the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy.
"You want good exercise?" Newmark asked, gesturing with a fork-skewered bean. "Push yourself away from the table. We're killing ourselves with too much food and too much caloric density. Forty percent of our calories come from fat. That's way too high and a lot of our diseases come from this."
Newmark is a former pharmaceutical industry chemist who served as director of food and agricultural product development for Hoffmann-La Roche in Nutley for more than 20 years after gaining notoriety in the industry as an innovator of injectable formulations. He speaks fondly of his years in the private sector. "I have about 20 patents, most of them with Roche, and the royalties helped put two kids through college," he said.
After retiring from Roche in 1981, Newmark, a classically trained violinist whose father was a flutist in an army band under Russian Czar Nicholas II, was not yet ready to fiddle away his time. He felt compelled to keep working and was invited to begin a second career in cancer prevention research and consulting with the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Toronto.
"I had never really been a cancer researcher," he said. "At Roche I did applied development work. I took the challenge in Toronto because I really believe that life should not end with retirement. You should not retire from something, but to something."
Newmark is convinced his second career in academia has played a role in his continuing vigor. He was among 17 Roche researchers who retired in 1981, he explained. "About half felt burned out. They didn't want any more science or anything eggheady. They wanted to play tennis or golf and read nothing more serious than a detective story. The other half went on to new careers. They started businesses, began teaching at universities, etc. Well, the ones with the second careers may have some aches and pains, but at least they're all still alive. The others — all went downhill."
Newmark returned to New Jersey from Toronto in 1984 but continued his cancer prevention research at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and the Strang Cancer Research Laboratory at Rockefeller University.
At Rutgers he works closely with Chung S. Yang, professor and chair of the Cullman Lab, and Allan Conney, William M. and Myrle W. Garbe Professor of Cancer and Leukemia Research at the School of Pharmacy.
"Harold is an inspiration for many of us," said Yang, "After a successful career in industry, he devoted his energy toward cancer prevention research. He has made important contributions, influenced many people and has made a major impact in a brilliant academic second career."
Besides lecturing at the pharmacy school, Newmark has been a prolific publisher of scientific papers. "When I left Roche I had about 20 publications to my credit. Now I'm up to 155," he said. His 1991 collaborative book, "Calcium, Vitamin D, and Prevention of Colon Cancer," set the tone for one his favorite projects — seeking a federal mandate to enrich cereal grain products with low levels of calcium and vitamin D to help reduce the incidence of osteoporosis and colon cancer.
He revealed a habit of eating whole-grain cereals for breakfast, noting that cereal grain products are already enriched with vitamin B1, B2, niacin, iron and folate. "Adding calcium and vitamin D would cost pennies per person per year," he said. "It would lead to a healthier population."
Newmark is a graduate of the City College of New York and the Polytechnic University of New York. He received an honorary doctor of science degree from Rutgers in 1998.
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