TODAY'S WEATHER: Storms late with a high of 75.
SPORTS: The baseball team beat Illinois-Chicago 8-4.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
TALK TO US: Contact Leita Walker, Jay Kraall or Kyle Ramsey at (785) 864-4810 or editor@kansan.com
KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
WEDNESDAY MAY1,2002
WWW.KANSAN.COM
ISSUE 142 VOLUME 112
HIDING in plain sight
Homeless man on campus leads mysterious life after promising beginning as college graduate
Gilmore in a 1974 high school photo
By Adam Pracht Kansan staff writer
"Ishmael," he says. "Call me Ishmael."
For at least 20 years, Gilmore has been a part of the University of Kansas—as a student, a man without a home and a campus eccentric.
Or call him Simon, like students who talk to this homeless man who lived behind the Dole Human Development Center. Call him in Red, or Birdman, as others do. To the local police, he is Robert Steven Gilmore.
But on April 10, Gilmore vanished from his usual spot beneath the Dole overhang near the north sliding glass doors, leaving his blankets behind on the concrete.
his home, apparently."
Marcelo Moreira, Recife, Brazil, freshman and an office assistant at a design lab in the Dole Center, said that he had seen Gilmore behind the building since the beginning of last year. He said he worried about Gilmore and had concerns when he didn't see Gilmore in his regular spot.
"What might have happened to him?" Moreira said. "What kept him from going back? Because that was
According to his acquaintances, Gilmore was involuntarily committed about three weeks ago to Osawatomie State Hospital, a mental health hospital. They said he was walking back and forth across Ninth Street, causing a hazard to drivers and himself. Police said he resisted arrest when they arrived.
A hospital attorney said that she could neither confirm nor deny that
Gilmore was admitted there.
Some who know Gilmore say he will return to the University, if given the chance.
Known only by rumors
Gilmore isn't saying much and guards his past carefully - a man hiding in plain sight among the affluence of University students.
Rumors say this man in a red sweatshirt was a leaver of the 1960s who fried his brain on LSD, or a KU professor who had a mental breakdown. None of these stories appears to be true, though he has shown signs of mental illness.
Others who know him say he doesn't have to be homeless. Gilmore himself won't say whether he has to survive on campus or if homelessness is his own choice.
It is difficult to tell if his answers are an act of defense to keep people away.
"I think that the purpose of most of the activity on this planet — I suspect — is specifically to make things more difficult for me personally," Gilmore said. "Why do you think the United Nations exists?"
SEE GILMORE ON PAGE 6A
Today's story about Robert Gilmore, a man students have seen sleeping near the Dole Center, is one of the best we have published this semester, but it brought with it an ethical dilemma.
The reporter, Adam Pracht, spent weeks working on the story. He succeeded in getting the story where many reporters have failed. By talking to other people and looking through public records, Pracht found a story about a man who was reluctant to go on the record.
The end result is a compelling, compassionate story that should be of interest to KU students.
But we have had second thoughts about publishing the story.
Robert Gilmore called me last week. He asked why we were doing the story and said we were invading his privacy. He insisted that he was not a public figure, but a private individual, and that his story was not interesting or newsworthy.
Less complete stories about him had been published by the Kansan in the past, he said, and they had led to harassment by insensitive members of the KU community.
He didn't want pictures taken. He said he was hurt that our reporter had dug through his past.
The story would make his life more hellish, he said, and he didn't know if he would be able to return to Lawrence.
So we were faced with this question: Do we run an interesting story that may foster better understanding of Gilmore and people like him at the expense of invading the life of someone who has little perceived power in society?
Everyone had an opinion.
Gilmore placed himself in the public eye, one journalism professor said. Gilmore is a public figure, and this story explains to students who he is.
But is he a public figure by his own choice? He has shown signs of mental illness. Does he even realize that making a temporary home near Dole raises interest and maybe concern — in our community?
On the flip side, one editor argued that this was an important story. We cannot slip into the practice of catering to our sources — every story we write forces us to some degree to examine the lives of our sources
COMMENTARY
Leita Walker
lwalker@kansan.com
and ask uncomfortable questions
Furthermore, he said, the story explained to students what had happened to the man they used to see on an almost daily basis (Gillmore is now in a state hospital).
Obviously, we decided to run the story.
It's not a decision I feel particularly comfortable with, but I would not have felt any better had we not run the story.
We faced in this story an ethical dilemma, and there was no clear-cut answer.
I wrote this column to explain to you, our readers — and maybe Gilmore himself — that the decision to run the story was not made haphazardly. We discussed it with many people, including several journalism professors, a supervisor at Osawatamie State Hospital and Gilmore himself.
It was an informed decision, and one we stand behind.
We decided to publish the story because Gilmore spent time on campus. Hundreds of students saw him almost daily many interacted with him, wondered about him, harbored concern for him.
Although I never talked to Gilmore, I have noticed his recent absence from the Dole Center. I've wondered where he was. Had he moved? Was he safe? Why were his blankets still there?
Pracht's story answers these questions for me and other students. That is why it belongs in the Kansan.
Read the story on today's front page. It is well-told.
And know it's about a man who didn't want his story told, but whose story might change the way we view people like him.
Walker is a Rolfe, Iowa, junior in journalism and religious studies and editor of the Kansan.
KING LEAR'S DAUGHTERS
Regan, in blue, played by Caitlin McDonald, N.D. bismarck, N.D. freshman; Goneril, in red, played by Averyn Mackey, Prairie Village sophomore; and Cordella, in yellow, played by Julia Hardin, Lawrence sophomore, listen as The Fool, played by Gwethalyn Williams, Manhattan senior, offers an outlook on life during a dress rehearsal of King Lear's Daughters. The play, directed by Julie Little Thunder, opens tomorrow night in the Inge Theatre.
LAURIE SISK/KANSAN
Professor, 70, found dead at home
By Rachel Keesee
Kansan staff writer
Donald Baer's wit, generosity and goodwill will be missed by his family, friends and colleagues.
Baer, a distinguished professor of human development and family life and psychology, was found dead at his home early yesterday morning. He was 70
Baer joined KU in 1965 and was planning to retire in June.
His daughter, Miriam Baer of Durham, N.C., said he was deeply committed to his academic pursuits and his research.
"He was very well loved by his peers and his students alike," she said. "He was my dad, and I loved him."
Edward Morris, professor and chairman of the human development and
family life department, said Baer was the intellectual leader of the department.
"Don was one of the most brilliant people I ever met," he said. "We were colleagues for 27 years."
Morris said he would remember Baer's wit, high standards of professionalism and concern for others.
"His generosity and goodwill toward students was wonderful — it's so hard to put into words right now," Morris said.
"I am grateful that we were able to share our gratitude with him just two
The department recently established the Donald M. Baer Faculty Award, which will be given to a professor in the department to recognize outstanding contributions. On April 13, Baer was given the plaque that will go to the first recipient of the award.
weeks before his untimely death," said Kathleen McCluskey-Fawcett, interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She also took one of Baer's classes when she was a graduate student.
"Don was a wonderful mentor to generations of students," she said.
Sgt. Mike Patrick of the Lawrence Police Department said Baer's wife, Elsie Pinkston, notified the police department at 2:59 a.m. yesterday because she could not reach Baer.
Pinkston is a professor of social work at the University of Chicago.
No official cause or date of death is available yet, Patrick said. Funeral arrangements are pending.
Contact Keeese at kkeees@kansan.com
This story was edited by Justin Hennina.
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