Woodward, Wheaton classmates address life’s ‘fourth act’

Bob Woodward’s career has been all about uncovering the details politicians don’t make public.

So when he spoke Friday afternoon at his 50th high school reunion, the journalist and author used his investigative skills on his classmates to get them talking about where their lives have taken them since graduating in 1961 from what was then Wheaton Community High School.

It took Woodward’s suggestion — and a few willing speakers planted in the audience — to get members of the Class of 1961 to open up about their work as a prison educator, or their decision to live in a mobile home after years in a Texas mansion, or their passion for advancing information technology.

Woodward opened up a bit, too, about the questions he strives to answer as a journalist. Finding out as much as possible about what goes on “is the fundamental question of the business of journalism,” he said. But those in power often make it difficult to get the facts.

“When I get up in the morning, my first thought, quite frankly, is ‘What are the (people in power) hiding?’ And whether they’re Democrats or Republicans, they’re always hiding,” Woodward said.

But that secretive attitude doesn’t have to be the case among former high school classmates in what Woodward called “the fourth act” of their lives.

“The fourth act is a challenge like all the other acts, and I really think it would be fascinating to create an atmosphere of intimate exchange for people to talk about, ‘OK, this is how I’ve lived this fourth act,” he said.

Tim Newitt, said he’s living as an attorney with offices in Carol Stream and Geneva. He talked about his decision to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a lawyer after a few years teaching French and German.

Newitt said his time in law school at Georgetown University from 1970 to 1974 allowed him to be near the nation’s capital (with a subscription to The Washington Post) as Woodward was writing his investigative pieces on President Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal.

Newitt said it was exciting in the 1970s to determine the Bob Woodward in the Post was the same Bob Woodward from Wheaton, and it was exciting to hear from his former classmate on Friday.

Some classmates reminisced about what Woodward was like as a youth.

One woman said he ruined a book report she had to give by asking so many questions it became obvious she hadn’t read it. Another said she knew Woodward was going to be something special because he could count to 200 when they were in second grade.

Woodward said 40 years of trying to comprehend politics in Washington, D.C., has taught him it’s hard to understand one’s own life, or the broader political climate when the events are still fresh.

“No matter what moment you are in, you don’t really understand what it means; you don’t really understand the significance of it,” Woodward said. “The humbling reality is you just don’t know what these things mean.”