4 ~ Friday, April 23, 1993 - North Shore News A real North Shore gem HE IS one of the North Shore's gems. He is one of North America’s rarest specimens, The Vancouver Aquarium made a fine catch when it landed Dr. Murray Newman. That was in 1956, He still hasn't wriggled off the hook. He was the aquariums first and only director until he officially tetired an March 31, He remains as a consultant, And in the last 37 years Murray: Newnan cook what began as linte more than a fish hobbyist's dream and created one of the outstand- iy aquariums in the world, and Canada's premier facility for marine life study, Newman, an elegantly modest man — whose modesty camou- Mages his immense ambition to make the Vancouver Aquarium the foremost on earth — would deny that assertion that he “orented’® the thing. He might accept the term “wuided.”* Newman incessantly praises the aquarium's boards of directors over the years (Sheroes''), its staff, its great benefactors — beginning wat the one who made itall happen, forest industry ty- coon H.R, MacMilkin, who really did spend and fund in the ¢radi- tions of the grand age of ty- coonery. Of himself, Newman says little, tending to dwell humorously on his inability ¢0 achieve certain voals, alleging that he didn’t have the uecessary political savvy. It takes effort to winkle out of him the plain fact chat he is the longest-serving director of an aquarium — the whole 37 years — in North America, His only rival, William Braker of Chicago's John G. Stedd Aquarium, has served longer but not as director. Newman speaks enthusiastically of his successor, Oregon-born John Nightingale, who served most recently at the New York Aquarium, He implies that Night- ingale will bring a fresh approach. Newman's has been distinctive. He’s a throwback to the restless, globe-trotting, pith-helmet natu- ralist/adventurer of old — a touch of the showman Frank (‘Bring ‘Em Back Alive’’) Buck. It's this combination of tramp- ing (and swimming) around the earth looking for wildlife, scholar- ly discipline, and adroit and sophisticated marketing skills that has made Newman so durable, and the Vancouver Aquarium such a perennial success. Self-effacing about his own role, Newman doesn’t hesitate to contrast the aquarium’s triumphs with the mediocre record of the Trevor Lautens oY ed GARDEN OF BIASES city’s other museums, broadly defined. While he's stayed at the helin for 37 years, the Vancouver Art Gallery has chewed up countless frustrated directors, The Maritime Museutn, he might have added, has never reached its potential. And then there’s the Stuntey ark Zoo... surely the sorrigst, most squalid nunp of a zoo this side ofan off-highway “attrac: tion” in swamp country. Newnan is unhesitating in defining the difference: “The best zoological gardens are operated not by parks boards but by zoological societies.”’ fany Stanley Park enthusiasts, including parks board members, bitterly resent what they see as Aquarium Imperialism, Newman always seemed to have an uphill fight for more space, more recognition for his baby. He put it this way in in inter- view at his West Vancouver home last weekend: “My carcer bas been, one, to raise public cin- sciousness (about marine and other wildlifg), iwo, to raise money, and three, to fight of f the vandals,”* The later he identifies calmly as “the parks people who resisted aquarium development” and *‘the animal activists.” Any politician “could get his face in the paper if he attacked the aquarium." As for the activists, ‘‘they’re misguided because the issues they bring up are not the significant issues. The real issues are the sur- vival of the animals in the wild.”’ Publicly, at least, the aquarium’s focus has therefore shifted in recent years to public education and academic study from the exciting — and, for those who ventured too close, soaking — spectacle of the whale shows, All this —~ a great and still very much growing aquarium, atten- dance of three-quarters of a mil- Itdoesnt needa pump to make it fit beter because it fits beter to begin with. Why would anyone buy a pair of running shoes without a pump or disc or other clever gimmick? Because they fit, Every New Balance shoe sited to match your feot's precise width, not just its length. new balance og Amore imellyent approach to butlding shoes Peay 3 jb | | W520 RUNNING rxtx} o | WCT500 TENNIS Cx io to | X po} K [x] Some women's models available up to size 13 (d)tn stock (oJ Available promptly by special order 3545 W. 4th Ave., Vancouver 733-1173 lion per year. a tom of 25 million visitors since it begin, an econom- ice benefit of $37 million a year tn cluding direct and indirect employment of about 2,000 people —- began as the inspiration of Carl Lietze, who had the somewhat unadventurous career as comp. troller for an insurance conipany but whuse real lite was that of it tropical fish hobbyist. Lietve, Rowe Holland of the Parks Board, and W.A, Clemens, head of the University of 2C.'s vooloyy department and one of Newinan’s teachers, foundedt the aquarium society, The Chicago-born Newman — a first-aid man in che American Marines who had served itt Guadaleanal and eather tough places in the Second World Was a= was i bright student who came to their attention, He became the aquarium’s first employee, first director =- staff of four — and his wile, Kathy, its first volunteer, The rest is history, But Newmiun isn’t much interested in that. He’s excited about the newly. opened Indonesian Reef Tank, About the Giant Fishes of dhe Amazon display, opening in dunce. About i grand new foyer plinied for the aquarium's 40th anniver- sary in 1996. About... They give Macray Newman a splendid black-ti¢ retirement din- ner on Tuesday, That's not to say they retired bim. custom _ i. Menwnum B wink, ' + SAVE SS% OFF te teat shy erty 30 ~orr ln Tel CUSTOM-MADE VALANCES IND & DRAPERY SPECIALIST! 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