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Paul was, at one time, the president and Chairman of the Board at Share One, Inc.
"From my brother Severus, to love my kin, and to love truth, and to love justice; and through him I learned to know Thrasea, Helvidius, Cato, Dion, Brutus; and from him I received the idea of a polity in which there is the same law for all, a polity administered with regard to equal rights and equal freedom of speech, and the idea of a kingly government which respects most of all the freedom of the governed; I learned from him also consistency and undeviating steadiness in my regard for philosophy; and a disposition to do good, and to give to others readily, and to cherish good hopes, and to believe that I am loved by my friends; and in him I observed no concealment of his opinions with respect to those whom he condemned, and that his friends had no need to conjecture what he wished or did not wish, but it was quite plain. "
"From Maximus I learned self-government, and not to be led aside by anything; and cheerfulness in all circumstances, as well as in illness; and a just admixture in the moral character of sweetness and dignity, and to do what was set before me without complaining. I observed that everybody believed that he thought as he spoke, and that in all that he did he never had any bad intention; and he never showed amazement and surprise, and was never in a hurry, and never put off doing a thing, nor was perplexed nor dejected, nor did he ever laugh to disguise his vexation, nor, on the other hand, was he ever passionate or suspicious. He was accustomed to do acts of beneficence, and was ready to forgive, and was free from all falsehood; and he presented the appearance of a man who could not be diverted from right rather than of a man who had been improved. I observed, too, that no man could ever think that he was despised by Maximus, or ever venture to think himself a better man. He had also the art of being humorous in an agreeable way." Marcus Aurelius,167 A.D.--
I remember the first time I met Paul. It was at Southwestern behind the Student Center building. Eldon came walking up with this giant beside him. Eldon: "This is my brother, Paul." Paul: "I'm Eldon's baby brother." And then that laugh. I liked Paul instantly - he had a smile as big as he was and was very charming and smart. I remember asking if he was coming to Southwestern next year: "No, I'm going to the University of Arkansas to study Electrical Engineering and play football." I was disappointed - tho I figured Arkansas would have a great football team.
I didn't see a lot of Paul over the next few years, but when he moved to Memphis in the early-to-mid seventies, he re-established contact thru Eldon. During that year prior to my moving to California, Paul and I became good friends. His friends were mostly Eldon's and my old Southwestern classmates, so we moved in the same circles and saw a good bit of each other. And we connected at a level deeper than I did with most folks I knew. He would come over to my wife's and my apartment - I remember a crazy Fourth of July night there - or we would visit him at his apartment which was also in midtown and had a swimming pool. We'd run into each other from time to time as well. If I went to a movie and it was funny and Paul was there, all of us who knew Paul knew he was there because his magnificent laugh would completely fill the movie theater.
After I moved to California, I didn't see Paul for about 3 years. I didn't visit Memphis and he wasn't traveling with his job in those days. The next time we connected, he came to pick me up at a Sears store in South Memphis where my sister and her husband were dropping me off. I recognized him immediately; except somebody had stolen his hair! That visit in 1977 was when I got to know Paul on a deeper level and our friendship really began to grow.
In 1978, he was rooming with Rick Larsen in midtown when I came thru town. And it really was a blast those couple weeks! I lived in the attic and we partied hardy. I was just leaving on my 3 year trip around the world and during those years, Paul stayed in touch with occasional letters. That's how I heard about Kathy (and Richard) coming into his life and about Kristie's birth.
When I returned to Memphis, I didn't tell anyone I was coming. I remember dropping off my friend Gwen at her work at 7 AM one morning and driving in her car to where Paul and Kathy were now living. I didn't want to ring the doorbell at that early hour, so I just sat in the car until I saw Paul come out and pick up the newspaper. So I hopped out and went up and met this great family Paul now had. I was in Memphis for about 6 weeks that fall and saw a lot of Paul and Kathy and Richard and Kristie (who was about 2 months old). I remember a Saturday afternoon going over to watch Arkansas play football against Texas. Watching any sporting event with Paul was a lot of fun; watching football, which was the favorite of both of us, was really fun; but watching Arkansas play football was a total trip! If the game was tight and things were going Arkansas's way, Paul would not move for fear that doing so would somehow upset the good vibes. And of course you could never speak to him, except MAYBE about the play that just happened or the one that was up coming; certainly about nothing else. But this particular afternoon, Arkansas beat the heck out of Texas from the opening kickoff and was doing such a thorough job of it, that even Paul could relax and enjoy the game.
I returned to San Francisco just in time to witness the 49er's first Super Bowl victory. To get to the Super Bowl they had to beat Paul's Cowboys (how he could cheer for them Texas Cowboys, him being from Arkansas, I never understood). It was a classically great game and afterwards Paul phoned me to "congratulate" me. That started our long standing custom of the "loser" of 49er - Cowboy games always calling the winner after the game. We stayed in touch by phone at other time as well.
I continued to visit Paul and Kathy on my trips to Memphis, which now were becoming annual events. I had long ago discovered that his heart, as well as his intellect, was even bigger than he was. I really enjoyed all those visits. He and Kathy visited me in San Francisco for a week one time and that was great fun. His business travels brought him to California so that we connected out there on other occasions. And I always looked forward to seeing Paul. Over these close to 30 years, our friendship did nothing but get deeper and deeper. I really came to see him as a truly remarkable human being. We could talk computer stuff, we could talk football, we could talk airplanes (another of his passions) and of course we talked women. I was always dazzled by his business sense, of which I had none and he had tons. His sense of humor was wonderful, with that totally memorable laugh, and we had a lot of fun. Just to have a friend with that much depth and who was so much fun was is a a true blessing.
The last time I saw Paul was at my father's funeral this past November. He had briefly met my father on a few occassions, but he and Eldon came to the funeral to support me. Paul was like that.
Paul, thank you for being such a great friend. Thank you for all the wonderful times we shared. It is a privilege and an honor to have know you for your all too brief stay on this planet. I know that where you are now, they are partying like it's 1999 and your laughter is booming thru the halls!
Leigh Brasington , 2 March '99
A poem by Mrs. Lois Turpin _________________________________________________ Paul Sherrod New Presence Extraordinaire Above and very high A jet stream in the air, Why that's Paul, I thought; That noble and endearing fellow Has slipped the bonds of Earth And soared away to a new dimension; How joyous he must feel, and boundless love surround him, as he basks in God's Endearing grace; No shadows, only light and peace abound As he stands in awesome wonder In the presence of the ultimate Extra Ordinaire! We will miss you, dear one But you have left a path so plain and clear, We want to follow you.
He was on the Arkansas Razorbacks football team in some capacity in college. In high school he was a National Merit semifinalist, here is his listing in "Who's Who among America's High Schools Students:
New. Paul S. Lee Senior HS: MArianna Ar, 3-127, SC, ScoutActcs, Lat: C: SCi, C: Govt Yth Cncl: NHS; IMS, JV Ftbl, Tr; Ltrs, Ftbl, Tr, BS; Harding Freedom Forum, HR; NMSF; Parl; PP Majorette; Vol. Fireman; Church Youth Chr;; Arkansas U: Elec Engr.
Subject:
Date:
Thu, 25 May 2000
From:
"dennis eleogram"
I read Leigh Brasington's letter about his acquaintance with Paul New who died in March of 1999. He described how his friendship began with meeting Paul. The circumstance of being introduced by Paul's brother, Eldon. The frequency of contact they had with each other, and the manner of their visits. The affect on one's personal growth such a friendship has. Aren't all these happenings the same, more or less, for most of us, I ask myself. His letter put into words the love, in all it's jestful and intelligent and solemn forms, formed over a lifetime with another being. I find a new meaning, and a new perspective in all my present and newly found friends when I look at them in the light of Leighs thoughts on this friendship with Paul New. In the manner of this retrospective I can view those friends of the past and come to understand who they were how I have been transformed by their association.
Thanks, Leigh. Thanks, Paul. May the benefit to me, from being loved by others, benefit others. Dennis Eleogram May 25, 2000
From Charles Fleming, Dec, 2000 Dear Eldon, All of my memories of Moro and of the New Family are fond ones. Paul taught me how to drive in the little red Falcon column-shift in the back yard of the new house. Your dad taught me how to knot a necktie. You taught me about Edmund Scientific, Mad Magazine, and Robert Heinlein. You and Paul took me and my brothers over to the cotton gin, and I recall that we just sort of walked on in, and that nobody paid much attention to us. I believe that would be quite unlikely in this day and age. I found your web site, and subsequently the email link, by doing a name search on Google. As memory serves, the last time I was in Moro, you, me, Paul, and my brother Dick loaded up in the Cutlass on a Saturday night and went somewhere, probably Brinkley. I think we went to the drive-in movie. On the way back home, you were driving and I was riding shotgun, and you were ruminating that if a Martian were to come to earth and see an american car, he would probably throw up on it. I do not believe that one can grow to middle years without having accumulated a list of regrets. One of mine is that I didn't have, nor did I create, the opportunity to stay close to you and Paul. When I finally found the photos on the web site, I recognized you both immediately. Those images compare exactly with the mental images I've carried with me all of these years. ....Charles Fleming
Eldon Remembers some things....
There are some interesting parallels and co-incidences with Paul and me.
We went to high school in Brinkley for three years, Paul threw the discuss a record breaking distance, but three minutes later another large fellow threw it even farther. I had an art poster on the wall in our room that my mother's friend, Lois Turpin, gave me.
Later, I was attending Southwestern, (now Rhodes), studying physics, and he was attending the University of Arkansas, studying engineering.
I became influenced by Buckminster Fuller andthe Whole Earth Catalog, and I moved for a couple of terms to the University of Ark. to study architecture. It was a really radical environment where I saw the movies made in North Vietnam made by Jane Fonda and others. Now there is a "Peace Fountain" as a memorial for Senator Fullbright at the spot where we had an anti-Vietnam War parade. (Clinton taught there just after we left and moved to Memphis) We shared an apartment then. I put a poster of Picasso's "Guernica" on the wall
After I moved back to Memphis and got a degree in physics, I worked for IBM for a while. Paul worked directly across the street at Medicenters. We shared an apartment down the street. We had a poster of the "cosmic fire hydrant".
IBM sent me to L.A. to study IBM's operating systems for three months. Paul was sent to Maynard Mass. to study DEC's operating systems the same year.
I went to San Francisco and Berkeley in 1974. I got to attend the National Convention of Humanistic Psychologisits on a borrowed pass. [ http://ahpweb.org/ ]
Paul and Charles Easley started CCA while I was on the west coast. I worked for them in the eighties. I put a poster of San Francisco on the wall at my office.
He hired some of my friends and aquaintances from college. I didn't go to a college reunion for many years, because I was working at one.
Then Paul got involved with Share One in the nineties, and I got to work with him there.
One day I got an email poking fun at Kenneth Starr. I cut out one paragraph and pasted it into another file. I selected a large font, and printed it out to send to my parents. I knew they would appreciate it.
Two days later, Paul came into my office with the same exact paragraph, printerd in the same size type font. Then he said he was planning to send it to our parents.
Eventually, one day, I was driving to work down Lamar Ave. and noticed Paul's car passing me. Then I noticed the coincedences.
"
Death is such as generation is, a mystery of nature; a composition out of the same elements, and a decomposition into the same; and altogether not a thing of which any man should be ashamed, for it is not contrary to the nature of a reasonable animal, and not contrary to the reason of our constitution. "
"Either it is a well-arranged universe or a chaos huddled together, but still a universe. But can a certain order subsist in thee, and disorder in the All? And this too when all things are so separated and diffused and sympathetic. "Marcus Aurelius
Calvary Episcopal Church 102 North Second (Adams and Second St. downtown) Memphis, Tennessee
The Paul S. New Memorial Fund Stadium Building Fund c/o The Razorback Foundation Post Office Box 3518 Fayetteville, AR 72702 | Making the World Work | | Political Issues | | | Class Distinctions | | | Intellectual Values | | Metaphysical Cartoons |
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