Collector, 60, known for displays

Rick Newman was credited by Robot Magazine with having the world’s largest private robot collection — and he never hesitated to share it in epic displays that lit up his Boca Raton neighborhood on Halloween and Christmas.

Newman, who produced sound and light shows in the Catskills before moving to the area, died of cancer Monday. He was 60 years old.

His wife, Jeanne Newman, said she and her husband had started to put up the Christmas display before he went into hospice Sunday. She said she’s going to try to keep alive the tradition, which has included “snow” flurries on his lawn along with tens of thousands of lights.

“It’s going to be tough this year,” she said. “It may not be as spectacular, but I will get it up and running.”

Sometimes his popular displays drew the ire of city officials. One 2011 Halloween sound and light show featured dancers, leading city officials to call it a “commercial activity” for which Newman could face steep fines.

But Newman’s show went on and went viral, covered by the major television networks.

“Our community has lost a treasure who brought joy to so many with his Halloween and Christmas displays and his robotics,” Boca Mayor Susan Haynie said. “He will be truly missed.”

Newman’s lifelong interest in science was spurred by the show, “Lost in Space,” and he wanted the area’s schoolchildren to experience the same thrill.

“I wanted to be Will Robinson,” he said in 2013.

His show business connections made it possible for him to acquire popular robotic celebrities such as R2D2, used in Star Wars scenes, and Robby the Robot from the 1956 movie “Forbidden Planet.”

He regularly loaned them to local schools and the Children’s Science Explorium at Boca Raton’s Sugar Sand Community Center.

Dr. Jeff Oppenheimer, an area neurosurgeon, regularly took his two sons, ages 11 and 14, and their friends to see Newman’s holiday displays.

“They were fantastic,” he said. “Certainly, his Halloween show was outrageous. Smoke, talking skeletons. He really put his heart and soul into it.”

Richard Kelly, vice president of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of South Florida, credited Newman’s efforts with helping two children get their wishes over the seven years he had his shows.

No memorial service is planned but Jeanne Newman said a life celebration is planned on what would have been his 61st birthday March 11.

STAFF FILE PHOTO Rick Newman’s interest in science was spurred by the show “Lost in Space.”