Posted by
Jared Masters on Sunday, September 28, 2008 11:25:36 AM
Today's column celebrates not the loss, but the gain for those who just met the man Paul Leonard Newman (January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008).
For all the well known greatness of an Iconic American Legend, Paul Newman was an
American actor,
film director,
entrepreneur,
humanitarian and
auto racing enthusiast. He won numerous awards, including an
Academy Award, two
Golden Globe Awards, a
Screen Actors Guild Award, a
Cannes Film Festival Award, an
Emmy award, and many honorary awards. He also won several national championships as a driver in
Sports Car Club of America road racing and his race teams won several championships in
open wheel IndyCar racing.
Of course for those who knew Paul personally, there is continuing physical loss because on September 26, 2008, Paul died at his long-time home in
Westport, Connecticut of complications arising from
lung cancer. However, living on as the physical reach of Paul's legend, he was also a co-founder of
Newman's Own, a food company from which Mr. Newman donated all profits and royalties to charity. As of May 2007, these donations exceeded $220 million and you can't put a price on that type of generosity that repairs the many lives of others even if it couldn't revive the life of his own.
When it comes to the word "Legacy" of Paul the man, his Lifetime Achievements have not ended, they are just re-beginnning every second of every moment in the lives of others who will be inspired by Paul just being the real act he was in the movies, and there aren't enough spaces on Hollywood's sidewalk of fame to keep up with the stars in the sky that everyone around the entire planet will be able to look up at and say Paul Newman filled a certain brightness that will never burn out.
Briefly attending
Ohio University in
Athens, Ohio, where he was initiated into the
Phi Kappa Tau fraternity, Paul now co-chairs his own Fraternity of "
Delta-Delta Upsilon Aión", or "coeds for eternity" in respects of his loving wife "Joey" more popularly known as
Joanne Woodward.
In respectful memory of a man I knew well like many others, but never got to meet, "Not gone, just very long remembered".
The 57th Delegate...