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WHEN THE PORCH

LIGHT’S ON. . .

STORIES OF PEOPLE,

POPCORN AND PARASAILS…

Don Newbury, Ph.D.

Copyright © 2011 by Don Newbury, Ph.D., and Gallivant Press, an imprint of Venture Galleries, LLC, 1220 Chateau Lane, Hideaway, Texas 75771. 214-564-1493.

Published in eBook format by Venture Galleries, LLC

Venturegalleries.com

Converted by http://www.eBookIt.com

ISBN-13: 978-1-9375-6902-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book can be reproduced, stored in a retrieval program, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or otherwise except as may be expressly permitted by the actual copyright statutes or in writing by the publisher.

Text:	Don Newbury, Ph.D.
Editing/Design:	Linda Greer Pirtle
Cover Design:	Jutta Medina

Dedication

This book is dedicated

To the Women in my life

Who have always outvoted me, 4-1.

Their love and support are beyond measure—

My wife of 36 years, Brenda Carol

And our three wonderful daughters—

Julie (Mrs. Bryan) Choate

Jana (Mrs. Kyle) Penney

And

Jeanie (Mrs. Ryan) McDaniel

Acknowledgements

ONE OF LIFE’S greatest discoveries is that each of us has mentors—from the first moments when we have at least a fuzzy knowledge of what “no” means until those last days, when we are looking for a “yes”—even if by lip-reading—much of the time. They are everywhere, these mentors, long after formal education has ended.

They are treasures, worthy of reverence and acknowledgement. They are family, friends, and associates—people from whom I have had opportunities to learn life’s greatest lessons. They’ve been the seasoning in the soup of life, providing excitement, acceptance, love, and good humor.

How thankful I am to have had the chance to see life from many sides. With training in journalism and experience both in the print and electronic media, I have learned what deadlines mean and the importance of truth. Then, for almost two decades, I was on the other side of the microphone and desktop—involved more in answering rather than asking.

Bill Moyers, press secretary to President Lyndon B. Johnson, espoused an intriguing credo for his role, which called for him “to tell the truth whenever possible, but never lie.” That’s not a bad goal, is it? So, I salute my mentors, many of whom know who they are, and some who never will. A dream is that all the people I love will be able to identify such friends and encouragers all along the way.

I have arrived at that place where additional words seem futile—just as they did late in my fortieth and final year of work in higher education. A Howard Payne University freshman, dead serious, stopped me on campus one day to ask “if I’d ever seen a real typewriter up close.” My eye twitched a bit as I started groping for an answer before he added, “I don’t think I’d even know how to plug one in.” At once I knew that a detailed answer would be pointless. “Why yes, I have….”

And I shut up. And walked away….

But seriously, folks, there are two people I want to acknowledge by name. One is a man who entrusted Howard Payne University to further the education of his son, Josh--a nationally-honored student athlete (two words that don’t always go together). This proud dad has been a constant encourager. He is a fellow journalist and the author of countless books. I refer to Caleb Pirtle, who has been an invaluable advisor in this literary effort. But I decided to ignore his advice, and wrote the book anyway….

And it wouldn’t be finished yet if Julie, our oldest daughter, hadn’t shown up in the final days, handed Ben off to his grandmother, pushed me aside and commandeered the keyboard for final corrections and editing….

About the Author

DR. DON NEWBURY, born in a setting as rural as it gets in the Heart of Texas, has compiled a forty-year career in higher education, spending almost half of that time in the president’s chair. Though a respected educator, he has spent much of his professional life outside the ivory towers. Having made more than four thousand five hundred speeches, Dr. Newbury values two introductions above all others…. “Once I was introduced as the country’s ‘unstuffiest’ college president, and I loved that,” he said. “Another time, it was said that I did for higher education what Dr. Patch Adams did for medicine.”

Many college presidents get so absorbed in the day-to-day grind they wouldn’t recognize life’s funny side if they were run over by a humor truck, he has observed. “Before I ever dreamed of being a university president, I chided them unmercifully,” he admits, once reminding a Texas convention of university CEOs that if a bomb were to hit the auditorium that day, “it would set education FORWARD a hundred years.”

He is a “people person” who refuses to take seriously more than half the links in the chain of human events. Reading several newspapers daily, he tweaks, twists, and turns news events into funny bits, yes even often from page one!

His experiences are tough to confine to a traditional resume. He has edited a country weekly newspaper, written for several regional newspapers in Texas, officiated many high school basketball games, made talks at dinners and conferences in forty-five states, given away more than twenty tons of popcorn and made gazillions of snow cones over a thirty-year period. Oh, yes, during his final years in higher education, he operated a parasail boat on Lake Brownwood at the prettiest times of the day—sunrise and sunset.

A family man, he and his wife, the former Brenda Carol Pack, have been married for thirty-six years. They have three married daughters and a grandson. They live in Fort Worth, Texas, within an hour’s drive of their children’s homes.

He was president of two of Texas’ smaller institutions—Western Texas College in Snyder (1980-85) and Howard Payne University in Brownwood (1985-97). Their annual combined enrollments are under two thousand five hundred students. He and his wife thrust their lives into those of the students—always lifting, always praying, and always helping. The result has been trails of happiness, inspiration and challenge, and many of them are explored in this, Dr. Newbury’s first book.

“Pessimists might claim that they’ve lived in a century when everything goes wrong,” Dr. Newbury observed. “I’ve lived in one quite opposite—so very much has gone right.”

Dr. Newbury certainly can talk education, but he jumps quickly to funny material of the day—and that’s mostly what this book addresses. Perhaps his highest tributes are paid by friends and fellow podium personalities, including Dr. Zig Ziglar, Coach Grant Teaff, Dr. Mamie McCullough, Riney Jordan, and Bunny Martin. Noted newspapermen like the Associated Press’ Mike Cochran and longtime columnists George Dolan and Jon McConal of The Fort Worth Star-Telegram have written hundreds of columns and stories about the goings-on of this unstuffy guy.

Decorated Dallas sports columnist Blackie Sherrod (also an HPU alumnus) said of George Dolan…. “BEFORE God made George, He broke the mold.” There’s plenty of evidence that Newbury’s mold was cracked, too.