PAUL WITHINGTON

Coming to Honolulu with his family in 1900, he attended Punahou where he was quarterback on the football team of 1903. After his graduation from Punahou in 1905, he went to Harvard where he continued to win athletic honors. He was a 60-minute lineman on Percy Haughton's powerful teams of 1906-1909 and was named center on Walter Camp's second All-American squad. He also rowed on the Harvard varsity crew and was a member of the Crimson swimming team. In 1909 he received his B.A. and in 1914 his M.D. and then stayed on as assistant coach under Haughton for a year.

From June to October, 1915, Dr. Withington served with the Harvard Surgical Unit which was assigned to General Hospital No. 22 in France under the Royal Medical Corps of the British Expeditionary Forces.

In December, 1915, Dr. Withington entered Boston City Hospital to serve his internship. On the completion of his hospital duties in August, 1916, he went to the University of Wisconsin where he combined his talents by serving as head coach and also organizing and serving as an instructor in the department of surgery. When the United States entered the war in 1917, he entered the Army Medical Corps and was in service overseas. In the decade following the war he was a Major in the Reserves.

In 1920 Dr. Withington arrived in Honolulu to take a year's residency at the Queen's Hospital, following which he became associated with Dr. Charles B. Cooper. Four years later he entered solo practice.

Dr. Withington married Miss Constance Restarick in Boston, April 18, 1911. On April 5, 1952, the doctor married Mrs. Rose Lane Schroeder in Honolulu. By his first marriage he had two sons, Henry Restarick and David Little, and by his second marriage a daughter, Elizabeth Little.

At the outbreak of World War II, Dr. Withington was called to active duty with the Navy Medical Corps in which he rose to the rank of Captain. In 1943 he was made assistant district medical officer of the 14th. naval district, a position he held until his discharge. Awarded the Legion of Merit by the Navy in 1945, he was also entitled to wear the Silver Star, the French Croix de Guerre, the British Mons Star, the World War I victory ribbon with four battle clasps, the Army of Occupation of Germany ribbon, the American Defense ribbon with star and the Pacific Asiatic ribbon with star. He was also an honorary lieutenant in the Royal Medical Corps of the British Army.

He resumed his medical practice in August, 1946. The following year governor Stainback appointed him chairman of the Territorial Boxing Commission. This was a "reform" commission, and he took office with an entirely new slate of members, none of whom had previously been associated with boxing. Under Dr. Withington the commission soon came to understand the intricate problems of the boxing game, and its strict but fair decisions won for the group local and national respect. From 1920 until his retirement in 1953, the doctor coached the Columbia University football team in 1923 and 1924, coached Punahou and University of Hawaii teams, served as team physician at Punahou, was named to the Board of Governors of the National Boxing Association in 1947, and served on the Territorial Boxing Commission until 1954.

Long past the time when most athletes are slowing down, he was playing excellent tennis (even on the third day after an appendectomy), stroking for the Myrtle Boat Club, winning races in his sail boat, was a great squash player with the only court in the Islands, and was an amateur wrestler who often worked out with the professionals.

On April 2, 1966, Dr. Withington died at his home in Honolulu at the age of 78.

He was a member of the Honolulu County Medical Society, the Hawaii Medical Association (president 1940-1941), American Medical Association, Hawaii Academy of Science, and served as vice-president of the local chapter of the International Association of Laryngectomees when it was organized in 1964.

He belonged to the Harvard Club of Hawaii and New York City, the Punahou Alumni Association (president 1923), the Pacific Club, the Pearl Harbor Yacht Club, Myrtle Boat Club, and was a charter member of the Waikiki Yacht Club. From 1933 until his death he was a member of the Board of Directors of the Honolulu Gas Company. In 1965 he was presented with the "O in Life" award as an outstanding alumnus of Punahou, the 12th. recipient of this honor.

Following his death, sportswriter, Andrew Mitsukado, devoted an entire column to Dr. Withington from which the following is quoted:

Dr. Withington was a true 'kamaaina' and as a 'kamaaina' he was imbued with Hawaii's spirit of goodwill to all men. Race and creed meant nothing to him. All men were equal to him.

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