About David

Eulogy for David Newman; delivered by Joanne Newman (David's eldest sister) & Adrian Newman (David's eldest brother)

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November 22, 2019

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On behalf of our family, we would like to begin by thanking everybody who is here today to celebrate the life of our older brother, David.  We have been blown away by the support that we have received during this difficult time. 

 

Our family would also like to take this opportunity to thank friends at Mercer for the amazing support provided to David and Robyn and the whole family since David was taken ill.

 

Over the last few days, we have been reflecting on David’s life and what made him who he was.  Most of you will know David as extremely generous, very funny, driven, intelligent and as a great friend and colleague. Because he led such a full life it would be impossible for us to do him justice in a few minutes this afternoon, so today we are just going to talk about a few of the important elements of David’s life. 

 

We think it would be fair to describe David as - shall we say - a man who enjoyed the social aspects of life. I am sure lots of you here have plenty of stories from many, many, many nights out with my brother. 

 

He loved music, playing his guitar and especially listening to U2 whom he has followed around the world.  Of course, it might all have been different for David, had he continued with his band in high school.  They were called “Dynamic Friction” after a section in his Applied Maths text book. We think we can all agree it would have been intriguing to see how that would have turned out.

 

David’s love of sports was a huge part of his life.  Whether it was golf, tennis, skiing or football they all allowed him to express his competitive edge that he brought to all he did.  

 

Games of golf against our Dad and Robyn, games of tennis at Tamarack, family FitBit step challenges, and even further back, games of football in the garden with me and his younger brothers were all treated with the same determination and passion; huge celebrations when he won and massive frustrations when he lost - especially in the back garden to his brothers 10 and 15 years his junior.

 

When it came to his football career, David being the huge Man Utd. fan that he was, liked to consider himself a Roy Keane-type midfielder with a cultured left foot.  He often would call home and tell us how he dominated midfield during his weekly football matches, and how he scored some wonder goal that turned out to be the winner. 

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Sadly for him, the truth about David’s football skills came to light at a football match before my wedding -  a match between the Irish side and my husband-to-be’s English team. While we all waited for David to dominate the midfield, all we saw was someone struggling against an opposition team that at times composed of an 11-year old and an 8-year old, the footage of which is still available on YouTube!

 

David left Ireland in 1996 and forged a fantastic career with Mercer in New York.  He loved his work, the great people at Mercer and the clients he worked with.  For David though, we think that the many close friendships he made were the real highlight of what he did and why he enjoyed his work so much.

 

Despite being in New York, David maintained a strong connection with home. From Carrigaline, to Christians, to UCD - David made lifelong friends who remained some of his closest to the end. Some of the stories you will hear from these guys are certainly not appropriate for us to mention here.

 

He was a fantastic son to mum and dad and an incredible older brother. During our dads illness, David played a huge role in keeping spirits high during what was a hard time for us all.  

 

He visited home frequently - displaying an inherent ability to wind everyone up whilst somehow staying on their good side. His Christmas visits will always be remembered for his panic shopping on Christmas Eve - watching David going from shop to shop, queue to queue became a Newman Christmas tradition, one that was met with many scratches of his head and declarations of “never again” and “I hate shopping so much”.

 

Equally, of course, David really appreciated when anyone visited him in New York. Whether it was having our Dad over for Thanksgiving or the summer holidays, or any of the rest of us over for a trip, David and Robyn were always so welcoming - taking time out of their busy schedules to ensure that we could spend time together and that we would always have a fantastic trip.

 

When David left all those years ago, we would could never have imagined how well he would do and how lucky he would be to meet his best friend Robyn and to have such a wonderful family, with three amazing children, Kaela, Conor and Sean. 

 

Ultimately they are the greatest part of David’s life. 

 

Robyn, Kaela, Conor and Sean were the centre of his being.  Every call home was filled with details of their successes and achievements - whether it was Kaela at gymnastics, Conor at football or Sean at golf; he was so proud of you all and he loved you so much.

 

At this point we would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to Robyn who has been David’s best friend and rock since they met, and particularly so over the last month. You made him so so happy and it was a joy for us all to see you both together.

 

And to close, In the words of the man himself to our Mum and Robyn just three weeks ago “I want everyone to know I had a great life with a wonderful partner, amazing kids and family, and fantastic friends”.