LAKEVILLE,Ind.— Hoosier Racing Tire Corp. Founder Robert "Bob" Newton died Sept. 26 at his home near Lakeville. He was 85.
Mr. Newton had been dealing with the effects of a stroke he suffered in 2011, according to a statement posted by Hoosier Racing Tire on its website, which said: "Bob died peacefully at home, surrounded by family members" including his wife Joyce.
Mr. Newton, an aspiring racer in his own right in the 1950s, co-founded Hoosier Racing Tire in 1957 together with his wife after being frustrated by the quality of race tires available then.
The Newtons started out retreading tires for racing, then got into the new race tire business in 1961 in partnership with Mohawk Rubber Co. of Akron, which up that point had provided Hoosier Tire with tread rubber.
That partnership lasted until 1978, when Mohawk closed its Akron plant.
In 1979 the Newtons built a plant in Plymouth, Ind., considered the first and only manufacturing plant designed to make tires exclusively for motorsports applications. The Newtons opened a second plant in 1992 for radial tires.
Today the company makes race tires for a wide range of motorsports series, ranging from dirt-track go-karts to high-speed endurance road racing to top-level drag racing. The company challenged Goodyear in NASCAR's top level for several years in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The privately held company employs a few hundred workers in Lakeville and nearby Plymouth.
Mr. Newton also was known locally for his community support in St. Joseph and Marshall counties, where Lakeville and Plymouth are located.
The couple donated 35 acres of land a few miles south of the company's headquarters for a park and sports complex — since renamed Newton Park — and also bought the Lakeville High School, which was slated for demolition, and turned it into a business incubator and community center known as the Newton Center.
Mr. Newton was a veteran of World War II. He is survived by his wife Joyce; sons Terry and Don; daughters Marge and Mary; eight grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.
Visititation will be Monday, Oct. 1 from 1 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. at the Newton Center. Funeral services will be held Oct. 2 at 10 a.m. at the Newton Center.
Donations in Mr. Newton's honor may be made to Newton Park, 654565 U.S. 31, Lakeville, Ind. 46536.