ROBERT E. LUMPKIN
Robert Lumpkin was a junior in high school when his family moved from south Jersey to the Brookside neighborhood of Newark over the 1956 Thanksgiving holiday. On Monday after the holiday he started classes at Newark Senior High School. After graduating in 1958, Robert then attended the University of Delaware. He graduated from UD in 1962 with degree in chemical engineering.
Segments from e-mail correspondence in 2009
What was Newark like in 1956?
That was the first year the new high school on Delaware Avenue was open. It had no cafeteria, no gym and no auditorium.... Rock and roll was played over the school PA (public address) system during lunch.... I think I heard Fats Domino sing "Blueberry Hill" a thousand times.
I went to the University of Delaware in 1958 and for the first two years, lived in Harter Hall, second floor, with a window right on Main Street.... The last two years at the University I lived in the Kappa Alpha house on Amstel Avenue.... [E]verybody slept in bunk beds in the two "decks" at the back of the house.
Source of information:
Lumpkin, Robert. E-mail correspondence on April 4, 2009 with students in Veness' Geography 315 class (Spring 2009).
Photo of Newark High School Memorabilia -- Courtesy of the Newark Historical Society for further information email the Society at newarkdehistoricalsociety@yahoo.com
