Bill Browner (Long Time Business Associate)
There are so many stories.
One of the 1st things he told me was about his site observation visits
when he worked in Tennessee. These were called inspections then, before
lawyers got involved. Apparently, he was a stickler for following the plans
and specs and not afraid to let the contractor know when they'd made a
mistake. I got the feeling that he was probably pretty blunt with his
opinions. One day though, he realized that he must have really pissed them
off, 'cause when he arrived on site he saw that they had built a cross for
him out of rebar and were ready to tie him up on it!
Another great story involved his dad, when he was on the Game and Fish
Commission, I believe in the early 60's, and the first attempt to
re-introduce black bears into Arkansas. Apparently, bears had been hunted
to extinction and it was decided to send a group of trappers to Minnesota to
capture wild bears and bring them back for release here. Newton remembered
waking up early one Saturday morning when a truck with a trailer full of
bears pulled into the family driveway in Rogers. He recalled them having
about 6 bears in the trailer and that they literally stank to high heaven.
His dad invited the trappers in for breakfast before they all loaded up and
headed down south to release the animals near where they hunted (maybe along
the Mulberry River, although I can't remember exactly) I don't know if they
tagged the bears or not, but Newton said that within 2 weeks of their
release, all of the bears were dead, either hit by cars or shot rummaging
through someone's place. The Commission members were pretty upset with the
complete failure of the mission so they questioned the trappers as to where
exactly they had found the bears. The trappers finally admitted that they
had gone north on a 2-week trapping mission but had spent the first 7-10
days in northern Minnesota taverns drinking, partying and having a good
time. When they realized that they were running out of time, they asked
some locals where they could find some bears and they directed them to a
city dump, where, for a number of years, these bears had learned how to
survive off people's refuse. So, they captured some dump bears and took
them to the woods of Arkansas where they deposited in the wilderness and the
bears went "whoa, where the hell's the food?" Naturally, they all headed
toward civilization, freaking out the locals, leading to their untimely, but
predictable demise.
Newt also shared many of his father's sayings with us, some of which I
use now when I can remember them, usually with the lead-in, "As my old
boss's father used to say........". My favorite is "the truth must be in
there somewhere, 'cause Lord knows' it's never come out".
Mostly though, I remember how good it was to work with him and how easy
he was to talk to. He was a very likeable guy, as long as you never lied to
him or didn't come through as promised. And he did not forget those who did
lie to him. If you were straight with him though, he was there for you too.
He was a person who would genuinely interact with you, look you in the eye
when he talked and listen when you responded. We had a number of enjoyable
days together, for which I'm forever grateful. I miss him.
Bill