Jerry McMullan Newbold Jr.

The Rev. Dr. Jerry M. Newbold, Jr., age 99 1/2, victoriously entered The Church Triumphant on April 13, 2022, while a resident at Givens Highland Farms Retirement Community in Black Mountain, NC.

Dr. Newbold, born on September 25, 1922, in Wilmington, NC, was the son of Jeremiah M. and Jessie Harper Newbold.  He graduated from New Hanover High School in Wilmington, NC; Davidson College in Davidson, NC; and Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, VA.  He received an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Austin College in Sherman, TX.

Prior to beginning his life’s work of administering children’s homes and family service agencies, Dr. Newbold served as Pastor of the Southport Presbyterian Church in Southport, NC, and taught high school chemistry in Southport and Elizabethtown, NC.  Additionally, he taught chemistry at the Shanghai American School in Shanghai, China, until evacuated by the U.S. Government due to Communist invasion.  Upon returning to the U.S., he served in North Carolina as Pastor of the Warsaw and Bowden Presbyterian Churches, Moderator of Wilmington Presbytery, and Chaplain (Captain) in the North Carolina National Guard.  For 35 years, Dr. Newbold was the CEO of the following children’s home and family service agencies of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.): Vera Lloyd Presbyterian Home for Children, Arkansas (1952-56); Presbyterian Children’s Home and Service Agency, Texas (1956-73); and Presbyterian Home and Zuni Presbyterian Training Center, Virginia (1973-87).

During those rewarding years, Dr. Newbold served as President of the Presbyterian Association of Children’s Homes, the Texas Association of Children’s Homes, Virginia Association of Children’s Homes, Southwestern Association of Executives of Homes for Children, and Southeastern Child Care Association.  He also was a founder and Board Secretary for the National Association of Homes and Services for Children.  Dr. Newbold represented Texas at the 1970 White House Conference on Children and Youth.  For 33 consecutive summers Dr. Newbold participated in the nationally acclaimed workshops sponsored by the School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and he promoted similar workshops at universities in Texas and Virginia.  He served on the Boards of The Presbyterian Outlook, Westminster-Canterbury of Lynchburg, Free Clinic of Central Virginia, and the First Presbyterian Church Weekday School in Lynchburg, VA.  After moving to Black Mountain, Dr. Newbold served on the Board of the Black Mountain Presbyterian Church Weekday School and as Board Treasurer for the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western North Carolina.  Dr. Newbold was a Rotarian.

Dr. Newbold’s first beloved wife of 54 years, Helen Shaw Newbold, predeceased him in 2002; and they are survived by their three daughters: Helen Martin Newbold and her husband, Mark Colbenson of Cullowhee; NC, her former husband, Eric Lacker of St. Petersburg, FL; and their children William Newbold Lacker (wife Laurel Casillo) and Katherine Martin Lacker of New York City; Frances Newbold Mohr and her husband Karl of Stone Mountain, GA; and Rebecca Newbold Dion and her husband Kyle of Mars Hill, NC; and his son Walker (wife Jessie Johnson-Tyas) of Arden, NC; and grandchildren Blayze, Calvin, and Alexis.

In 2008 Dr. Newbold happily married Patricia Orton Moran Talley Newbold, the widow of the Rev. Dr. Charles Talley, and is survived by her and her children: Charles and his family of Arden, NC; and Katherine and her family of Navato, CA.

Dr. Newbold was preceded in death by his five siblings: Caroline Newbold Swails and Anne Newbold Perkins of Wilmington, NC; his twin sister, Jessie Newbold Kennedy of Lexington, VA; and his younger twin brothers, Charles Harper Newbold of Davidson, NC, and Kenneth Raynor Newbold of Rose Hill, NC.
 

A private graveside service will be held at the Harper-Newbold Family Plot in Wilmington’s historic Oakdale Cemetery. 

Penland Family Funeral Home honored to be assisting the Newbold Family. 

Memorial Gifts in tribute to Dr. Newbold may be made to the charity of the donor’s choice.

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