Obituary
Mike Newell, 66, veteran Iowa Press producer
Mike Newell, a longtime producer at Iowa Public Television, died Dec. 1 [2011] at Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines, after suffering a heart attack the previous week and undergoing surgery on Nov. 29. He was 66.
“Iowa Public Television’s public affairs series Iowa Press lost its leader this week when longtime coordinating producer Mike Newell passed away,” the station announced on its website. “For the past 20 years, Mike’s hands were at the helm of this program, steering a steady course through the sometimes murky waters of public policy and politics. While you never heard his voice on Iowa Press, he was undoubtedly the heart and soul of the program.”
Newell had worked full time for the state network since 2003, according to the Des Moines Register, and previously freelanced for the network starting in the 1980s, producing stories for its rural business program, Market to Market.
Newell had a mild heart attack at age 49, which prompted a change in his daily schedule. Until then, he told a Register columnist after that health crisis, Newell would awaken at at 3:40 a.m. and to the office by 5. “I’d have three cups of coffee and three cigarettes before I put my underwear on,” Newell said; he’d work until after midnight, and do it all again the next day.
He was born in Bloomington, Ind., to Robert J. and Margaret Mary Newell. He grew in Milwaukee, Wis., with seven siblings. He graduated in 1963 from Francis Jordan High School, where he earned All-State Honors in football. He graduated from Drake University in 1968 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.
He is survived by his wife, Christine; daughters Amy Freshwater and Christine Newell; granddaughters Elizabeth Raptis and Rachel and Sarah Freshwater; and siblings Mary Duffy, John, Peter, Paul, Anne May, Gerry and Carol.
The family suggests donations to the Mayo Clinic Hematology Department or the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
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