Joseph Simon Newman

A graduate of Central High School, Newman attended the Case Institute of Technology before withdrawing to go into business.

Two years later, with brother Arthur Samuel Newman and partner Arnold Stern, he founded the Electro-Set Co. to manufacture educational toys, some being his own inventions.

After his retirement from business, in 1952 he began to write a weekly column for the Cleveland Press under the heading "It Could Be Verse".

In 1957, he began to contribute a daily column under the title "Joe Newman's Frying Pan".

[3] His poem "Black Cross"[4] has been recorded by Bob Dylan[5] on The Minnesota Hotel Tape, 1961, and by Lord Buckley[6] on Way Out Humor.