It was always his 'own': Paul Newman was driven by a sense of doing what was right.(OBITUARY)

Paul Newman was a Hollywood icon for his roles in classic films like Cool Hand Luke and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. He'll also be remembered for what salad dressing, popcorn, spaghetti sauce and other tasty treats can do for philanthropy.

Newman wasn't just hawking product--he never even wanted his picture on the label--he was fundraising. Newman's Own, the Westport, Conn.-based company he started with his friend, A.E. Hotchner, was one of the first to give its profit--in this case all of it--to charities around the globe.

"Paul Newman helped set the pace for philanthropy and his commitment not only as far as financially supporting the community but the types of products he created were more sensitive, healthy, environmentally sensitive, and aware," said Matthew Nelson, managing director for corporate services at the Council On Foundations (CoF) in Washington, D.C. He was at the forefront of "high integration of not just philanthropy but a business model that integrates business and philanthropy that's often called corporate social responsibility," he said.

Newman, 83, died of cancer on Sept. 26 at his farmhouse in Westport, Conn.

What started out as a joke in 1982 when Newman and Hotchner gave away homemade salad dressing as Christmas gifts has grown into a multimillion-dollar company that has helped provide $250 million for charity.

The company has become a model for corporate philanthropy and cause marketing, expanding past salad dressing into numerous food and beverage products. "Shameless exploitation in pursuit of the Common Good" is not only the company's motto, but also the title of a 2003 book by Newman and Hotchner that detailed their start during the early '80s.

"His work in establishing one of the, what I could call a social entrepreneurship, was an excellent example of the principle of corporate giving; doing well at the same time doing good," said Dwight Burlingame, associate executive director of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. "His approach to that epitomized one of the best models for that to take place," he said.

Newman also helped establish the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy in 1999, Nelson said, because he wanted to see other chief executive officers use the same model and style of grantmaking. Today, more than 170 corporations and their executives are members of the committee.

"He really put a face to the issue" of corporate philanthropy, Nelson said, and "leapfrogged awareness in the public eye of what corporations can do and are doing."

Whenever consumers are polled about socially responsible businesses, Newman's Own is near the top of the list, despite very little advertising, according to David Hessekiel, president of Rye, N.Y.-based Cause Marketing Forum. "Although he did not like the term cause marketing, Paul Newman played a unique, starring role in the progress that has been achieved over the last 20 years in advancing the idea that companies can do well by doing good," said Hessekiel. "Leveraging his fame and a dedication to product quality, Paul built a substantial, sustainable business that has giving back ingrained in its DNA," he said.

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"Thanks to Paul Newman's generosity of spirit (and commitment to selling superior products), Newman's Own is a shining example of how a well-run company dedicated to giving back can thrive," said Hessekiel. "We'll never see his like again, but I know that Paul Newman's example will long inspire entrepreneurs to make giving back into the fundamental operating principles of their companies and brands," he added.

Newman personally distributed the profits until the Newman's Own Foundation was created two years ago to help continue giving away money in the future. One of his daughters serves on the foundation's board and also heads up the organic line of Newman's Own products.

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In 1988, Newman started the Hole in the Wall Gang (HITWG) camps, which provide free summer recreation for children with serious illnesses, and is now an association of 12 camps in several countries. But he didn't just found the first camp, said Raymond Empson, HITWG president and CEO. Newman was involved and instrumental in the camps that have come into being after the original, and his support and involvement have made him "the spiritual leader of the family of camps," Empson said. In addition to his personal contributions, Newman traveled to camps and was very involved and "very much the moving spirit and force behind the camp family," he added.

Lesser known among Newman's activities, Burlingame said, were his efforts to promote freedom of expression, particularly as it relates to the written word, with the PEN American Center/Newman's Own First Amendment Award, which carries with it a $20,000 cash prize. An avid supporter of Eugene McCarthy in the 1968 presidential race, Newman apparently ended up on President Richard Nixon's enemies list. The award, Burlingame said, illustrated Newman's "own commitment to the role philanthropy can play in society."

Carol Cone remembers meeting with Newman and Hotchner several years ago. "His eyes were as wonderfully piercing and blue as the sky on the clearest day," said Cone, the founder and chairman of Cone, LLC, a Boston-based strategy and communications agency focused on branding. Newman had an amazing ability to not take himself too seriously, even during a business conversation, and easily injected humor into everything he said.

Describing him as a latter-day Ben and Jerry, Cone said Newman was able to start a business because he had nothing to prove, and with his successful acting career, was able to donate all profits to charity. "He had a lot of fun just doing it," she said. "Then all of a sudden, it started to become a business."

Said Cone: "Because he didn't need the money, he had the freedom to design something. And, he did it." That authenticity is what Cone credits to the originality of Newman's Own and the Hole in the Wall Gang. It's also what she believes will help continue the legacy of Newman's Own. The company is as "authentic and real as the man Paul Newman," she said, adding "his authenticity was one of the pillars" of that organization.

"In a way," Cone said, "his business was as pure as the beauty of his blue eyes."

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