The University Daily
KANSAN
University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
Monday, February 16, 1981 Vol. 91, No. 96 USPS 650-640
KU student perishes in local plane crash
Bv the Kansan staff
A KU student died Friday night when a light plane crashed into the Kansas River about 2 miles west of Lawrence Municipal Airport.
The student, Douglas Wayne Potter, 20, was a Lawrence junior majoring in business education.
Potter's plane, a blue and white Cessna 172,
owned by the Lawrence Flying Club, crashed into the frozen river a quarter-mile southeast of the airport. Co.'s generating plant about 5:50 p.m. Friday.
A KP&L EMPLOYEE told authorities that he saw the plane hit an electrical power line that stretched across the river and then disappeared behind some trees. No power lines were knocked down, but the force of the plane's impact caused the tops of two wooden utility poles to sniff off.
The impact of the crash, however, probably did not kill Potter, according to the assistant Douglas County coroner, Carol Moddrell. She listed the cause of death as probable drowning. His legs were fractured in the crash and he suffered cuts and bruises.
The plane was found upside down on the ice with its nose in the water, estimated to be eight to 10 feet deep. Potter was in the plane's cabin, his seat belt buckled.
THE NEWS OF Potter's crash shocked
them, especially those who knew
but flying ably.
"I just can't believe it," F. C. Norton, president of the Aerob飞翔 Club, said. "Doug was a very conservative pilot. He never took any airplanes, always flew according to regulations."
Norton said that Potter, who got his license April, had more than 100 hours of flying training and was hired to fly on the aircraft.
Potter's mother, Allois, said he only did things he could do well.
"If he wasn't as good as you in golf or something, he wouldn't play with you," she said.
Sam's Saloon in Quenemo remained closed Friday 13 to avoid the influx of motorcyclists that have been tradition in the decaying Kansas town on that date.
She said his biggest interest was school and classes, because they were "giving him insight"
HE WAS BOOKMARKED as a private person by his sister, Stacy, a KU member in engineering.
to understand the world." She said he planned to make a million dollars by the time he was 30 years old.
"I think he would have done it,too," she said.
Potter argued his right to register for the draft, even if anyone else was protesting against it, his sister said.
ROB ROOL ElKenan at11
"He didn't want to go to war, but he believed in defending America," she said.
POTTER TRANSFERRED to KU from Pratt Junior College where he played football for a team.
Potter's mother, who operates Hertz Renta-Car,
2245 Ohio St., said that Potter had flown two employees of the company to Manhattan Friday to pick up two rental cars and drive them back to
The cause of the crash has not been determined, although federal investigators said they had ruled out engine malfunction or low fuel at this point in their investigation.
RESCUE WORKERS used a boat to reach the plane and recover Potter's body. A helicopter from the Tokea Air Police department equipped the plane with the recovery, which took until 8:30 p.m.
Officials at first believed that there was more than one person in the aircraft at the time of the crash. Initial reports indicated that there might have been as many as four people aboard the plane. A search of the area was made from the air by the firefighters, and it was confirmed that only one person was involved.
WORKERS AT THE scene said they had two problems in the recovery efforts—Potter was strapped in the plane with his seatbelt and in the plane with the plane would slip off the ice into the water.
Douglas County sheriff's deputies, Lawrence
officials and firefighters and the Wakawara
Federal Police.
Potter's body was removed from the plane and taken to shore by rescue workers in a Lawrence Fire Department boat, and taken to Lawrence Memorial Hospital.
Authorities first considered using an Army helicopter equipped with a crane to the plane from which the attackers landed.
See CRASH page 3
Authorities squash Quenemo bashes
By BILL VOGRIN
Staff Writer
For the past seven years Quenemo was the site of massive motorcycle festivals every Friday in Los Angeles.
QUENEMO—As a growing railroad town, Quenemo weathered floods, killer prairie fires and tornadoes. But city fathers decided the town could not survive another swarm of celebrating motorcylists and called on the state to save it may have been a fatal call for the community.
gathered here to drink, race and celebrate the digital curiosity of the date.
Last June—the previous Friday the 13th—
the celebration took a felonious turn and three
Monday Morning.
deaths resulted. Some of the 400 Quenemo residents decided they had seen enough.
About 80 uniformed officers, representing more than a half dozen law enforcement agents, were apprehended and kept out all non-residents. In a crush of law enforcement they stopped the party from ever starting.
By but killing the party, which attracted 2,500 bikers to Quenamo last June, the city fathers may have struck a death-blow on the already withering town.
Empty streets and abandoned buildings are common in Quenemo. In fact, there are only three occupied buildings in the decaying downtown. A U.S. Post Office, a gas station and Quenemo Recreation, or Sam's Saloon, make up the main street.
The Friday the 13th parties were the only regular influx of commerce since the Santa Fe Railroad began in 1869.
led out its shipping depot. Visitors
See QUENEMO page 5
Museum relics remain stored in KU tin shed
By CORAL BEACH Staff Reporter
Most museum curators care for their collections in temperature-controlled, tile-floored buildings that house spotless glass cases filled with precious works of art.
Elizabeth Banks, curator of KU's Wilcox Classics Collection, does not. Her duties are carried out in a draft, concrete-floored tin shed on West Campus.
"The collection was on display in old Fraser Hall from 1888 to 1965." Banks, associate professor of classics, said. "When old Fraser was torn down, the collection was supposed to be stored until the construction of the new universities building (Wescoe Hall) was completed."
Sculptures, photographs and oil paintings that are part of the University's Wilcox Classics Collection on West Campus. The collection was temporarily stored in the shed in 1965 after Old Fager was torn down.
The shed has been the "temporary" storage place for the collection since 1965 when the museum pieces were removed from old Fraser Hall.
"The plans for Wesco Hall originally included two classroom buildings, a 25-story office tower and a glassed-in connecting area that was supposed to the Wilcox Collection."
WHEN THE GRANDISE plans for Wescoe
SCIENCE CLASSROOMS
See CLASSICS page 3
BOB GREENSPAN/Kensen staff
Higher education needs review. Chalmers says
By KAREN SCHLUETER Staff Reporter
KU students, faculty and administrators must reassess the goals of higher education and present their case to the public for support. Ms. Schoenauer willanceller E. Laurence Chalmers said last night.
Speaking to 250 people at the Higher Education Week Banquet, he said that declining enrollments and the tight economy were not appealing to the citizens of Kanass for support.
"The task is to see that the citizens fully understand and support the University of Kansas." Chalmers said.
"If you go to supporters armed merely with arguments of dwindling enrollments and inflation, you will find yourselves in a long, long line of others with the same story."
He said that the same effort to reach the public was required now that was put forth in the spring and summer of 1969, following violence and campus unrest at KU.
He said he was thankful to the students, faculty and staff who worked in 1989 to dispirulors concerning events such as the burning of the Kansas Union and protest marches.
"They organized in a massive effort to find out all the facts of the events of the spring of 1989, and spread out to every corner of the state to tell everyone and anyone who would listen," he said.
The University is once again being threatened, he said, but this time by economic forces.
The fact that KU is one of the finest state universities in the country and is respected outside of the state has caused some problems in the airport, Chalmers said in an interview Saturday.
"The threat to it is excellence it has pursued and the greatness it has achieved in the past," he said. "It is an achievement."
"Kansans have a love-hate affair with their University," he said. "It is obviously a source of great pride, but it also represents a sort of brain drain to the state."
HE SAID THAT because the University was responsible for the research provided an invitation for students to leave the state.
"Some Kanans think that's the way my son or daughter managed to get to that awful New
York, or Los Angeles, never to come back to Kangas event for visits," he said.
Students must play an active role in the quest for support, Chalmers said.
*Students need to analyze the extent to which it has failed to meet their expectation, match expectations and achieve goals.*
Chalmers, who was an advocate of student participation in University affairs during his KU years, 1989 to 1972, said during the interview that students that students were now apathetic was incorrect.
"What the students lack now is a single, highly visible issue, therefore, they lack media attention," he said. "But I question very seriously that they are not so concerned or concerned now as they were 19 years ago."
AS CHALMERS talked about his years as chancellor, he said that the part he missed most now in his current job as director of the Art Institute of Chicago was talking to students.
He recalled several instances when upset客人 came to the chancellor's house as late as 2 a.m.
Although Chalmers was chancellor during a time when violence was a fact of life on many campuses, he said he never felt threatened by the students.
"I felt protected by the students," he said.
"I gave permission for 5,000 students to march down Jayhawk Boulevard, and they didn't disturb a leaf or twig, but many people outside the University were incensed by this."
He said that he had to protect the students' free assembly at a time when many people were out.
In addition to Chalmers' speech, several were presented at the banquet.
MATT DAVIS, former student body vice president, won the Rusty Laefel Concerned Student Award. Davis has served in several positions on the Student Senate, the University Council and is currently a member of the Chancellor Search Committee.
The Higher Education Leadership award was presented to Dr. Cromb, a former member of the National Council for Women.
The recipients of the Higher Education Week Service awards were Marian Washington, head women's basketball coach; Geoffrey Garagni, center; Karen Benedict, right; and Donald Aiderson, dean of Student Services.
Weather
It will be warm today with the high near 68 under partly cloudy skies, according to the National Weather Service. Tonight's low will be in the mid 30s.
It will be continued warm tomorrow with a high in the 80s.
Windsa will be out of the southwest at 5-15 mph.