A dedicated volunteer, advocate and ambassador for the College of Arts and Sciences is being honored with this year’s Alumni Award for Distinguished Service.

Joseph Newhart (BS in Geology, 1969) studied at The Ohio State University and, after serving as an officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve for four years, later received his master’s degree from Bowling Green State University. Newhart then spent more than 30 years as a petroleum geologist and executive for Exxon and ExxonMobil, spearheading petroleum exploration and production in the United States, Mexico and Western Europe. Newhart has served on the Dean’s Advisory Committee at Ohio State since 2015 and played a key role in the creation of the Alumni Advisory Committee for the School of Earth Sciences, serving as the chair since its inception in 2018.  

Newhart says that his first years at Ohio State impressed upon him the importance of hard work and focus, in his academic pursuits. “When I went through high school, I really didn’t have to work very hard. I got here and I started in Engineering and I just was not prepared for that because I’d never really had to buckle down and study hard. So, I learned how to study here.”

Newhart decided to change his major as a sophomore, which he says showed him the value of a balanced humanities curriculum – something that would later guide his experience on the Dean’s Advisory Committee.

“When I changed my major – decided that Engineering was not going to be for me – and changed my major to Geology, I was a sophomore. So, a lot of the courses I took for my general education requirements were more upper level – and some of the most interesting courses I’ve ever taken. You get that broadening in an Arts and Sciences education.”

Newhart’s career took him all over the globe, first studying geological formations for the petroleum industry before moving into oversight roles. While he always remembered his alma mater fondly, it was only after he retired that he reconnected with Ohio State in a more hands-on way. “When I was asked to be on the Dean’s Advisory Committee, I was told that, in the past, it was more of an audience: we come in twice a year and they tell us what they’re doing. But the dean at the time wanted us to be more of a working group.”

Among his work with the Dean’s Advisory Committee was modernizing the career services resources that Ohio State offers to its students. Newhart says that the broad range of subject matter that he experienced at Ohio State, as an undergraduate, was reflected in the make-up of the Advisory Committee on which he served – something in which he took great joy in participating.

“Being able to work in a team with people of diverse professional backgrounds was very interesting. There were folks with a journalism background, another with a background in urban planning, my background in geology. It was very interesting to work with people who were completely different from me, from that standpoint.”

Newhart’s passion for service extends to his other home community in Colorado. He currently serves a Commissioner on the Lower Blue Planning Commission and as Board President for the Buffalo Mountain Metropolitan District in Summit County, Colorado. He volunteers with the Friends of the Dillon Ranger District of the White River National Forest and as a summer Ranger Patroller, where he provides educational geological tours.

Being honored with the Arts and Sciences Alumni Award for Distinguished Service was something that Newhart received with great humility. “I was very shocked. I got the e-mail in February and went ‘holy mackerel!’ I look at some of the people who have gotten this award in the past and I feel very honored to be in that league, with them.”

Newhart says that he considers it a privilege to be able to give back to Ohio State. “I feel very fortunate to have the ability to spend my time and effort in an alumni role, back at the university. It’s been very gratifying, to me.”

The College of Arts and Sciences congratulates Joe Newhart and all of the recipients of the 2022-2023 Arts and Sciences Alumni Awards. The five recipients will be presented with their awards on Friday, April 14.