Photo: prorallypix | License: Creative Commons 2.0
Paul Newman passed away on Friday at his farmhouse in Westport, CT. Aside from being a racing nut in the best possible way, Paul gave away close to a quarter of a billion dollars to charity through his Newman’s Own brand. I don’t like eulogies much but anyone who becomes as famous as Paul did is prone to inflating their sense of importance in the world. He was, by all accounts, one of the most down to earth people ever.
In my book, anyone who owns a racing team, places on the podium at LeMans, stars in “Cool Hand Luke”, gives away hundreds of millions of dollars to charity, and lands on Nixon’s enemies list (among many, many other accomplishments) is thereby unimpeachable.
Good obits are here:
This is a sad story from a few weeks back about his last visit to Lime Rock Park:
Apologies to Autoblog for stealing their photo choice but I have no photos of the man that I have taken myself.