Paul Newvine is a father, husband, motorcycle enthusiast, hockey fan and among other things, a man who knows how to grow a beard.
He usually grows a beard for hunting season, but this year only maintained a mustache. After coming up deer-less again last weekend, he reflected on his bad luck. One theory was his failure to grow enough facial hair before this year’s season. Ellie, Paul’s wife and hunting partner of 24 years, bagged a deer earlier in the season, so the couple still has “meat in the freezer.”
Paul has been the Noble Center cleaner for the last 7 months. He works Monday through Friday 5am to 1:30pm. Sykes, Augsbury, the science complex, and Dean Eaton have all seen his congenial face in the last ten years. Before St. Lawrence, he worked as a lab technician and supervisor and grew to “hate management jobs.”
Besides hunting, Paul is a motorcyclist. On a nice weekend he likes to ride his 6-cylinder Honda Valkyrie over 100 miles in one sitting.
At SLU, Paul knows a ton of people, and even more by face. Some of his best memories from the school have been meeting the hockey players. He still keeps in touch with Mike McKenna, who graduated a few years ago and now plays for the Lowell Devils in Massachusetts. Paul tries to make it to all the St. Lawrence home games. Last year he promised Alex Petizian that if the hockey team made it to the ECAC playoffs, he would watch the game in Albany. He kept the promise, taking two days off from work to fulfull it. Concerning more recent news he said, “It was nice to hear SLU beat Clarkson at Cheel last Saturday.”
Growing up in Norwood, NY, Paul’s parents knew the family of his future wife, Ellie. When Paul was 16, he became Ellie’s first boyfriend. However, their teen romance was short-lived as he joined the Marine Corps in 1975. By June 1979, the two had drifted apart. Paul was out of the Marines and married. Ellie was also hitched. In the 1980s, after both marriages ended, he came back upstate to visit friends and unexpectedly rekindled his relationship with Ellie. Now, he said, they get along great and never argue—“Because someone is always right.”
They have a son at SUNY Canton and a daughter living in Ohio. Besides work, Paul is remodeling his house before he puts it on the market. He takes care of his mother-in-law and her property and also does odd jobs. Paul takes pride in his work and says, “If you are going to do something, do it to the best of your ability.” And Clarkson still sucks.
