W. Wayne Newcomb

W. Wayne Newcomb, 56, of Burtonsville passed away on Thursday, December 18, 2008 at Laurel Regional Hospital after a 10 week battle of advanced cancer. He was born on June 25, 1952 to Russell and Martha Newcomb in Cambridge, MD. He grew up on a small farm in Golden Hill and attended local schools. Upon graduation from South Dorchester High School, Wayne pursued and received a degree in Agronomy at the University of Maryland. Wayne began working at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD in 1978, providing technical support to a branch exploring the new field of remotes sensing of the earth's resources. This involved an A to Z program from instrument calibration and measurements to data processing and analysis. Mr. Newcomb was well served by his agricultural up-bringing and academic background as he was a natural liaison between NASA's technical remotes sensing mission to study agricultural productivity and the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center's field research studies that served as ground truth. He was instrumental in taking new measurements of agricultural crops and grasslands that was used to understand the early Landsat measurements. Such studies served to be the springboard for many new satellite data applications. His ever-expanding involvement enabled USDA agronomists, NASA scientists and engineers to collaborate on many new research activities. In the early 1980's, Wayne helped develop a global scale satellite study of vegetation. Based on the techniques developed in the NASA-BARC investigations, Mr. Newcomb began applying them to global satellite images as part of the GIMMS program. This project became a foundation of NASA's earth science research activities. Mr. Newcomb acquired and extracted data from tens of thousands of satellite tapes and provided field verification of the results from international field campaigns from Mongolia to West Africa. Mr. Newcomb was co-author on several highly cited scientific papers from this project. A third NASA career developed in the early 1990's that took him from satellite research back to the ground to develop a network of ground-based observatories to monitor and study the influence of atmospheric particles on remotely sensed data and climate change. Wayne's mature technical skills and practical approach for implementing new ideas were critical to the development and growth of the new project called AERONET. The project grew to be one of NASA's great success stories in Earth Science as the program expanded to every continent and numerous islands totaling over 400 observatories. Mr. Newcomb knew and communicated with scientists and technicians at every site. He traveled extensively training, repairing and organizing more and better measurements. He recently organized a ground truth field campaign over the Delmarva Peninsula followed by a similar campaign in India in 2008. In 2006, Mr. Newcomb received a Goddard group award for outstanding contributions to NASA's science mission. In October 2008, Mr. Newcomb was recognized by his peers as outstanding laboratory support contractor. Mr. Newcomb co-authored 17 papers throughout his career. Beyond the professional accomplishments, his life will be remembered for his agricultural and small town sensibilities, set amidst his urban lifestyle. This was his glue that bound scientists with technicians, urbanites to rural people, and foreign cultures to his own. He loved his big garden, his tractors and Stihl saw, and rockabilly music. He and his daughter enjoyed many things together, including a similar sense of humor and view of the world. They liked to explore new things together, go to county and state fairs and were always looking for the best marketplace to buy tea and find the weirdest food they could. Emma will truly miss buying the annual Hess trucks with her father, and just hanging out with him. Wayne was always eager to offer advice, lend a hand or just BS. He liked people, all people. He collected hats from around the world, Hess trucks and anecdotes from everywhere. He did "the needful" and much more. AERONET's Friday teas will not be the same. He will be sorely missed by his family, his colleagues and his friends. Wayne is survived by his daughter, Emma Blue Newcomb of Brookeville, MD; his mother, Martha Newcomb of Golden Hill, MD; his brothers Ronald Newcomb and wife Kim of Church Creek, Gary Newcomb and wife Cindy of Church Creek, and Commissioner Jay L. Newcomb of Golden Hill; true friend Gwyneth Newcomb of Brookeville, MD; nieces Heidi Cohoon and husband Steve, Melissa Thomas and husband Cody; cousins and great nieces. Preceding him in death is his father, J. Russell Newcomb. A graveside memorial service will be held on Monday afternoon, December 22nd at 1:00 p.m. at Old Trinity Churchyard with Pastor David Stewart officiating. A celebration of life will follow at the Church Creek VFC hall. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Heartland Hospice, 12304 Baltimore Avenue, Suite A, Beltsville, MD 20705.