A Well Proportioned Life
With an appropriately solemn demeanour and immaculately dressed in a dark suit, he directs the funeral; now he’s stripped to trunks, his beautifully proportioned, muscular body shimmering beneath a film of oil and perspiration, waiting for the lights to signal a successful lift. This is Paul Newberry, who owned and operated a major funeral home in Whangarei, New Zealand, for more than 30 years while simultaneously a selector and coach of New Zealand’s Commonwealth and Olympic Games weight-lifting teams.
Along with Peter, his identical twin, Paul had a natural flare for entertaining. They were so difficult to identify that when Paul was in an army training camp during World War II, the two would swap places for a day or two and no-one knew the difference!
They early became involved in swimming, diving and the Boy Scouts movement. And they were inventive, making homemade scuba equipment well before the introduction of underwater sports.
Their father ran the Newberry funeral home, so when they left school they helped him. In 1946, behind the funeral parlour and uncomfortably close to coffins and embalming apparatus, the teenagers established a private gym. It soon became the centre for a group of teenagers fascinated with the physical fitness culture.
Their interest developed from bodybuilding to acrobatics—hand balancing and tumbling. From there it was a short step to the formation of an entertainment group, the exotically named De Mon Troupe. Six fit young men, trained by the Newberrys, entertained thousands in town halls, Mardi Gras and swimming carnivals.
“I used to do a backward somersault with a 20 lb [9 kg] dumbbell in each hand,” Paul recalls. “The weights would come in at the end of each flip and hit my legs. I had bruises all the way up my legs!”
But he had a more serious, mature interest in traditional bodybuilding and weightlifting, and his 50-year-association with the sport gave him a high national profile.
As a selector and coach, he was involved in the Empire and Commonwealth Games, beginning with Cardiff, and later was selector and coach for the Mexico (1968) and Munich (1972) Olympics. It was Paul’s idea to take a camera behind the lift facade and show the pre-lift warm-up procedures of the athletes.
While running the family’s Whangarei funeral home during the 1950s, he also owned and managed the city’s top nightclub, Skylounge, attracting performers such as Howard Morrison, Ray Columbus and Aker Bilk among others. Meanwhile, his brother Peter had carved out a separate career as a versatile acrobat, trick cyclist and musician and eventually made a name for himself as the popular Crunchy the Clown. He rode the smallest bicycle in the world.
Although Paul’s father was a keen Bible student and the family adhered to basic Christian values, he was never affiliated with any church. It was in their gym that the boys came into contact with Basil Ford, a weightlifter, then a young Christian, who would became a national titleholder and was also contender for the 1958 Edinburgh Games. However, he wasn’t selected, because he refused to participate on Saturday—the Sabbath of the Bible. In his association with Basil Ford, he developed a secret interest in his (Basil’s) beliefs. His interest also was prompted by another keen lifter, Les Liggett, also a Christian.
In 1998 Paul picked up a flier for a series of Bible presentations presented by US evangelist Dwight Nelson (See Signs of the Times, August 1998) via satellite. But the first meeting in the series clashed with a planned fishing expedition. Paul chose fishing.
He hadn’t been long at the beach when it started to rain. He went to the meeting instead. After that, he didn’t miss a meeting.
Paul began to study the Bible with the encouragement of the local Seventh-day Adventist minister, Pastor George Porter, and, eventually, he accepted Christ as his Saviour and was baptised.
Paul was anxious to share his newfound faith with his brother, who had retired and moved to Australia. Paul visited him and found him likewise interested in a deeper spiritual knowledge. However, Paul was concerned for his brother, who showed signs of Alzheimer’s disease. On a second visit, Peter assured Paul of his acceptance of Jesus. Paul’s concern was realised when, sadly, Peter passed away in November 2003.
Paul’s positive Christian outlook and confidence in his decision he shares with his many friends, and, like his Kauri home, his heart is always open to them.
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