About the Author: Don Newbury, Ph.D.
Dr. Don Newbury, born in a setting as rural as it gets in the Heart of Texas, has compiled a forty-year career in higher education, spending almost half of that time in the president's chair. Though a respected educator, he has spent much of his professional life outside the ivory towers. He is a people person who refuses to take seriously more than half the links in the chain of human events. Reading several newspapers daily, he tweaks, twists, and turns news events into funny bits, yes even often from page one.
Dr. Newbury graduated from Howard Payne University, receiving his B.A. with three majors (journalism, business, and secondary education). He also holds a Master of Journalism Degree from the University of Texas (1966) and a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from the University of North Texas (1973).
Newbury has been president of two Texas institutions: Western Texas College in Snyder, Texas (1908-1985) and Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas (1985-1997). Both he and his wife welcomed into their life the students of these universities, always lifting up, always praying, and always helping.
Dr. Newbury and his wife, the former Brenda Carol Pack, have been married for thirty-six years. They have three married daughters and a grandson. They live in Fort Worth, Texas.
When The Porch Light's On is a look at life through the eyes of a man who says he would have enjoyed being Walter Mitty's little brother. Don Newbury has long been regarded as unconventional, and he admires the Mitty kind of life -- going most places on purpose and then letting the wind take over.
Newbury is a keen observer of life as it exists on the slower side of the street. He may feel at home in the nation's larger cities, but Newbury prefers the pace and rhythm, the wit and wisdom of Small Town America where a man on the other side of town can become a friend for life, even if you've met him only once and hardly ever remember his name.
He relishes the day's news, particularly the common man who makes it, tweaking, twisting, and turning these accounts into the warm, gentle humor and sometimes heartbreaking stories that can have an impact on anyone's life.
When the Porch Light's On makes you laugh a lot, cry a little, and appreciate the foibles of the human condition. It is littered with an odd assortment of the most extraordinary characters you will ever meet.
As one columnist wrote: "Newbury is a master of humor, timing, and inspiration. He is determined to find healthy humor in at least every other link in the chain of human events. He refuses to take himself or his world seriously for more than a few minutes of time."
But, no matter, how hilarious he writes, he leaves his readers remarkably enriched -- a rare and important talent.
