Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 27, Number 4, 1 ʻApelila 2010 — Standing tall [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Standing tall

By Lisa Asato KaWai Ola George E. Newton Sr., a Hawaiian on the cusp of turning 90 in April, knows the secret to success in business. "You do good work. Treat your customers good," says Newton, who ran the business with his twin

brother, Charles, for more than five decades, and who continues to serve as vice president since passing the top responsibility to his son David in 2005. "I go up in the front, say good morning, talk to the customers. They are the bosses," says George E. Newton. "I used to do hospital calls way down Wai'anae. We'd get

in our cars. If they cannot eome, we'll go. The other day I went to see Dr. Silva not too far from here, Pensacola Street. Delivered two pair of shoes with insoles You have to give service. That's the main thing." The business is C.R. Newton Co. Ltd., a prosthetics and orthotics maker and supplier, whieh Charles Newton started in 1941 in Waikīkl at the corner of Kalākaua and Kūhiō avenues. Today, C.R. Newton continues to do artificiallimb manufacturing and fitting and also offers rentals and sales of wheelchairs, scooters, hospital beds and other durable medical equipment, many of whieh are displayed in its showroom on the first floor of a business complex at 1575 S. Beretania St., where its neighbors include Mona Beauty Salon and Larry Welsch State Farm Insurance Agent. "We do a lot of work for diabetic patients. We sell shoes and inserts," George E. Newton says, pointing to his own shoe. "You see, round toe, lots of room in there. It has Velcro (straps) and we have inserts that go in there - niee and soft." Growing up in Kula and Wailuku on Maui in the 1920s and '30s, prosthetics wasn't part of the plan. The two brothers were supposed to go to Kamehameha Schools but fate intervened. "In 1936 my brother and I took the exam to go to Kamehameha," George E. Newton says. "I was accepted but he failed. But I'm glad he failed, otherwise we wouldn't have this." By 1941, Charles, who had clubfeet, had the "distinction of being the only wooden leg maker in Hawai'i," according to a wartime article in the Honoluhi Star-Bulle-See STflNMNGTflLL on page 19

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George Newton Sr. with a prosthesis for an above-knee amy\}\ee. - Photo: Lisa Asato

3TANDING ĪALL

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tin. He had been introduced to the field by family friend Eldon Morrell, attended vocational school in Honolulu and was trained in Portland, Oregon, in prosthetic and orthotics before returning home with a bride and becoming his own boss - whieh he announced by hanging a shingle, reading, "C.R. Newton Co., orthopedic appliances, artificial limbs." George E. Newton eame aboard in 1945, at the end of the second World War bringing with him the machinist skills learned during on-the-job training programs while at Kamehameha and in his years in the war effort both as a machinist at the underground fuel storage at Red Hill and working on guns at Fort Shafter. "The guns would eome from the mainland," he recalls. "We would take the whole guns apart, have it all elean, put it together and send it out. Anti-aircraft guns, coast artillery and everything. Sixteenineh guns, way up in the mountains above Schofield." To keep up with advances in prosthetics, or artificial limbs, and orthotics, whieh refers to things like braces and corsets, George E. Newton attended many short courses on the mainland that would last from two weeks to one month. "I went to Oregon, Boston, New York, New Orleans, Connecticut, Northwestern University in Chicago and UCLA," he says. "I always had to go and attend those courses because I was doing work for Shiners Hospital, and referrals from doctors." George E. Newtown, who has received an 'Ō'Ō Award from the Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce and has been recognized by

Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris and the state House of Representatives, says the prosthetics and orthotics field has made great advances since 1945. "Today we ean order a foot or braces already made," he says, marveling at advances such as mindcontrolled artificial limbs, including hands in whieh all the fingers move. "When I started in this type of work there was nothing made. We had to start everything from scratch: braces, corsets, everything. What made it easy for me was that I was a machinist doing metalwork. We still have the sewing maehine, almost 70 years old and it still works. Another thing he continues is having regular clinics on the Neighbor Islands and other Paeihe Islands. A certificate from the state House of Representatives describes his "generous humanitarian spirit that led him to the Marshall Islands after a polio outbreak in 1963 to create, design and fabricate orthoses for several children, whieh led to numerous trips to the Paeihe Islands of the Paeihe of Guam, Saipan, Truk, Samoa, Yap and Palau to eontinue his work at his own expense." He also went to īaiwan with doctors from Shriners Hospital to train men in Kaushung to make body jackets, he adds. When he took over C.R. Newton in 1954, he had about 10 staff, including many veterans and two amputees. His wife worked in the office. The business has a total of 28 employees today, and although George E. Newton may eall it a day by 2:30 or 3 p.m. on weekdays, he's there working on Saturdays too. "When I graduated in 1940 from Kamehameha School it was on a Sunday," he says. "I started to work on Monday and I'm still working." Some things never change. ■