Good Morning everyone! Thank you all for coming this morning to celebrate the life of Christopher James Newton and give such tremendous support to the Newton family. I am honored to stand here in front of all of you and speak of the life of Christopher James Newton.

It started on June 2, 1970, with the birth of Christopher James Newton. At that time, only Fred and Joan knew what they had. Several years later, I had the privilege of meeting Chris and from that day on, I watched Chris change the lives of everyone around him. Chris had a way of energizing people during the most distressed times of their lives. He was a man of honor, a man of dignity, a man of integrity and always possessed the most positive attitude about everything in his life. He passed that attitude on to his family and friends every day of his life. He said to me once, "Warren, I just always try to turn something negative into a positive". That was Chris, the most positive person I've ever known. He always walked through adversities if it never existed. Chris didn't have problems. He never saw anything as a problem. He faced everything head on and with shear determination to get through the toughest of times. Every day was a day of beauty and no problems seemed to affect him.

I remember one of the first times Fred said we could take the boat out at Kickapoo Cabin. We drove the boat down to the dock, backed it into the water, unloaded it and felt really good about how we had successfully put the boat in the water. We proceeded to pull the truck back up and park it up the hill. We gathered the hydro slides, the skis and the tube. We walked down and noticed the boat was sitting low. As we started to get inside, we noticed there was TWO feet of water in the boat! Chris's response...no big deal...let's start the engine and take it for a spin and it will all drain out. That's what we did and we ALSO kept our good feelings of successfully putting the boat in the water.

Chris was the greatest friend anyone could EVER ask for. He was there for you when you needed him in the everyday challenges of life. He was there for you to drink a beer with and he was also there for you to drink several beers with. He didn't care what time it was to call him or where you were if you needed him. He would find a way to the phone or find a way to get to you to assist you in any way he could.

Chris loved to have fun in life. The country and western artist, Clay Walker, wrote a song and used Chris's philosophy in life. The title of the song is,

Live, Love, Laugh. Listen to this song and it will bring great memories of

Chris. Chris knew how to have fun. He would have fun in whatever he did.

He knew how to LIVE! He lived a life with simplistic values and was always putting people before him. How many times did you go to a friend's house and they told you to sleep in the bed and they would sleep on the couch? That was Chris. Chris loved everyone around him. That love could be felt just sitting there watching a baseball game or playing Sega Genesis. He brought a radiation to the room as soon as he entered it and made everyone feel comfortable and at ease.

Chris was the only man I knew who had a Masters Degree without getting a college degree. He had a Masters degree in getting people together. This wasn't because Chris took college course on this, it was because he enjoyed doing this and he worked very hard at doing it. It could have been because the moon was full and he would be calling me up saying, "Warren, the moon in full tonight and we are having a get together". Actually the message included much more than that. It was SO LONG and SO DESCRIPTIVE and FULL OF DETAILS that I frequently made a trip to the refrigerator to get something to drink, then go sit down and finish listening to his message. I always hoped I understood and got it right the first time.  He was an awesome communicator!

He was a great conversationalist. He had time for everyone and knew how to approach anyone and talk to them. This last October we went to the Ryder Cup golf matches together. As we wandered the grounds of the Brookline Country Club in Massachusetts, we decided to watch some golf at the 6th hole. The crowd was thick, so we walked through some heavy bushes trying desperately to get a view of the golfers on the putting green. We finally got out on the other side of the bushes and looked up to see George Brett, a former Kansas City Royal and Marty Schottenheimer, the former head coach for the Kansas City Chiefs. They looked surprised to see two young guys coming out of those bushes. We stood there and watched some golf with them and before we left, we were all "high-fiving" and cheering together as if we had known each other from way back. He would take a minute for everyone whether they were a superstar or guy at the grocery store and find the goodness in their heart.

Chris had no fear in the things he did in his life and gave 100 percent on everything he did. Chris holds a record in basketball that not even Michael

Jordan or Wilt Chamberlain holds. He fouled out of a basketball game in the shortest time ever. We played basketball together in the eighth grade and we were members of an ELITE group on that team called the BOMB SQUAD. Our mission: to get the ball from the other team. Coach put in the first set of members and Chris being one of them, started on a mission. He was determined and he was going for it...the basketball of course. In that 1 minute, 35 second time span, Chris had collected five fouls going for the basketball. It was awesome. It was determination, it was persistence and it was guts that he possessed that day and when his time was over, he checked out...it might have been short but it was all he had and then some.

Chris lived a life with a very distinct pace. A pace that everyone wishes they could have and a pace that everyone wishes they could keep up with. He took life one day at a time and one stop at a time. I promise you, those weren't big steps either. At times, one would wonder what Chris was doing. There was never a doubt as to what he was doing or where he was going. He always had a plan. That was always evident by the ideas he had and the things he did. Chris was a competitor and Chris was a winner. As everyone else does, he had his own ways in challenging people. He was a great debater and loved to debate or challenge people on various issues or topics in life. One thing I never did was debate or challenge him because he was right 99 percent of the time. But CHRIS, BUDDY ...back in 1979, when Mike Renfro caught that pass against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC championship game, he was in bounds!! :)

I want everyone here to take a piece of Chris Newton and wear it on your shoulder everywhere you go and remember him every day. We can't replace Chris. All of us together will not be able to fill his shoes, but what we can do is take a piece of him and remember him every day. He was all about being a man of good things and good deeds and we can all learn and grow from our experiences with him. Chris was always a happy man and today he is still a happy man.

Words cannot describe how much we will miss Chris! Chris, SOMEDAY, SOMEDAY we will be with you again.

To my best friend and my Caddy and from everyone here today, WE LOVE YOU from the bottom of our hearts.