'WORLDWALKER' TO SPEAK AT UNIVERSITY

"Worldwalker" Steven Newman will be the featured speaker during a Common Hour presentation Wednesday at Southeast Missouri State University.

Newman will speak at 12:30 p.m. in Academic Auditorium. The presentation is titled "Around the World in Four Years" and is being sponsored by the president's office at Southeast.

"This is a rare opportunity to hear from a gentleman who has experienced the totality of this world," said Dr. Dale Nitzschke, university president.

Newman is the only person in history documented to have walked solo around the world. From 1983 to 1987, the journalist ventured across 21 nations on five continents, sharing his adventures with his 1 million newspaper readers.

Labeled a fool by nearly everyone, he set out on April 1, 1983, at age 28, from his boyhood village of Bethel, Ohio, to live his dream. Truly on his own and his total luggage a backpack, Newman trekked far from the beaten path. Across Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and North America he walked alone, sleeping in fields, under bridges, in abandoned buildings, or in the homes of people who invited him.

Newman ended up staying with 400 families during his travels. Most of those families were very poor. In many cases, he not only stayed with them but lived as his hosts -- spending weeks or months with the family and toiling alongside them. In addition to laboring with farm peasants in southern Europe, Newman worked in Moroccan salt mines, on Italian fishing boats, in a circus in Greece, in a school in the Thai jungles, and even as a newspaper editor in Australia.

His adventures were very similar to those straight out of an Indiana Jones film: Sahara sandstorms, near-death brushes with bandits, a runaway team of horses, an escape from a Turkish prison, and even encounters with African boars, 10-foot-long worms, and the dreaded bull ants of the Australian outback.

Newman's adventure is mostly one of warmth and kindness, of others wanting to share his dream. Though he was a total stranger to nearly all he met, and he never asked for more than a glass of water, Newman was still blessed by many with food, shelter and friendship. He has said he came to know that there is far more love than hatred in the world.

A man of many talents, Newman has found numerous ways to incorporate his overseas experiences and communication skills into a vocation. Due to the popularity of the Worldwalker stories, he was asked to do a series of books: "Letters From Steven" in 1987 and "Worldwalk" in 1989. He also co-authored "Guardians of Yellowstone" in 1991.

Newman has been a guest on more than 100 television and radio shows. He has been the subject of articles in newspapers and magazines.

Newman is Ohio's "Ambassador of Natural Resources" and recently was awarded the Ohio Rails-to-Trails Conservancy's highest honor, the Trailblazer Award, for blazing the path of a new hiking and biking trail that will stretch from the Ohio River to Lake Erie. Newman and his wife, Darci, a teacher, live in rural Brown County, Ohio.