CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday, March 14, 1994
3
Topeka man found guilty of murder
Car theft turned deadly last year
Bv Llz Chadwick
Kansan staff writer
Jurors deliberated about an hour Friday morning before finding a Topeka man guilty of murder and attempted aggravated robbery.
The murder trial of Abraham Orr, 18, lasted three days. Orr was convicted of shooting and killing Edward Lees of Lawrence, who was parked near the entrance of River.
front Park in North Lawrence on Sept. 18 with his girlfriend and her two children.
who was parked near the entrance of Riverfront Park in North Lawrence on Sept. 18 with his girlfriend and her two children.
Jerry Wells, Douglas County district attorney, said he thought that the guilty verdict had been delivered in record time.
This was a good one to win, he said.
Orr testified that he and his three companions had been driving to Topeka when their car broke down outside Lawrence on North Third Street near Tepee Junction. The four decided to steal a car so that they could get back to Topeka, he said.
"I though I was doing the right thing," Orr said. "I was just trying to use all our home."
said. I was just trying to get us all home.
Orr, who was 17 at the time of the murder,
testified that he had agreed to steal a car
and had asked one of the three to come with him. One companion, Courtney Crockett, then 17, volunteered.
The two started walking when they spot
ted Lees' Isuzu Trooper, he said. Orr said they had decided to steal it. He motioned to Lees to roll down his window, Orr said, and when Leses didn't respond, Orr banged his .357 Magnum on the side of the door. Lees attempted to shift the car into reverse, Orr said, so Orr shot him once in the head.
The bullet was meant to shatter the window, not kill Lees, Orr testified.
Lees' girlfriend and her children escaped unharmed.
Orr also said that he had not realized that he had done something wrong until hours after his arrest, when Crockett told him that he had confessed to the police.
One of Orr's high school teachers and a social worker both testified that Orr was bright and had done well in school before
his brother had been murdered last summer.
A psychiatrist who evaluated Orr in November concluded that he was not legally insane. But Orr's attorney, Randy McGrath, argued that his client's testimony proved that he was insane when the murder happened.
"I thought I was doing the right thing. 'Is that the testimony of a sane man?' McGrath said.
Orr married an 18-year-old woman, Sarah, while he was being held at Douglas County jail. On Feb. 27, Sarah Orr smuggled a gun into the jail during a visit and attempted a jail break. The Orrs, who have an infant child, are awaiting preliminary hearings.
Mountain bike race caters to all levels
By Frank McCleary Kansan staff writer
By Frank McCleary
Grinding and groaning, pedaling and pushing, more than 170 people made their way up, down and around Hastie Hill yesterday.
Photos by Jennie Zeiner / KANSAN
Those athletes, men and women from around Kansas, competed in the Hastie Hill Mountain Bike Race. The race, southwest of Lawrence, included racers who ranged in age from college students to middle-aged competitors. Since mountain bikes first appeared in the mid-1890s, their popularity has attracted people of all ages.
The popularity is evident not only in the increasing number of races but in a look down Jayhawk Boulevard on a warm day. Mountain bikes line the street.
Scott Warren, Lawrence resident and president of Mtn Bik Lawrence, said mountain-biking was an easy sport to enjoy.
"You put on a pair of shorts, a hat and go ride the trails," he said. "It's a bike you can just pick up and ride."
"You either like it that way, or you can get more serious," Warren said.
The race, in its fourth year, drew competitors ranging from beginners to professionals.
The fact that almost half the entrants were beginners shows how popular the sport is becoming, Warren said. Scott Kleiner, Englewood, Colo., sophomore, said the Hastie Hill race was his first race in the more than two years he had been riding mountain bikes.
"This is by far the best hill around Lawrence," he said. "It keeps you on your toes."
he was not applauded.
"I was harrow about finishing" he said.
Kleiner said he liked mountain biking because it was exciting and he got an adrenaline rush from it.
Although he finished fifth in his division, Kleiner said,
he was not disappointed.
Karl Gridley, owner of the Hastie Hill course said that the trails such as those by the Kansas River, Clinton Lake and Hastie Hill were good for mountain biking.
"People think of Kansas as boring and flat," he said. "Some of the best mountain biking is in Kansas."
**Above:** As part of a "Le Mans" start, bikers in the beginners category rush to begin the race. This type of start requires racers to lay their bikes on the ground and run to them when the whistle is blown. **Right:** A competitor in the sport category splashes through a puddle on the trail. Bikers in this category were required to complete four laps on the three-mile circuit.
Brian Duff, bicycle mechanic at Sunflower Bike Shop, 804 Massachusetts St., said mountain bikes had become part of American society.
"I got my first mountain bike in 1885, and people at KU asked me what kind of funny bike it was," he said.
"Quite a few commuters, like myself, ride their bikes everyday," Duff said.
Candidates vie for position as dean of architecture
Bv Roberta Johnson
Kansan staff writer
The following are profiles of the four candidates for dean of architecture, one of whom may take the place of retiring dean Max Lucas on July 1.
John Gaunt CEO of Ellerbe Becket
John Gaunt wants to take his worldwide experience to the University of Kansas.
Gaunt — president and CEO of Ellerbe Becket, an architectural firm in Minneapolis — has been involved with projects in Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Germany and Great Britain.
Gaunt came to know KU graduates through work at the firm's office in Kansas City, Mo. he said.
"I got to know the University through these people, and I have a high regard for the University," he said.
Although Gaurt has been a professional architect for 28 years — 18 of which have been at Ellerbe Becket — he has taught at some schools, he said.
his focus to work in the University
"I wanted to combine teaching along the way, but the practice got to be too much," he said.
Gaunt, who has degrees in both architecture and art history, now plans to change
Gaunt said that he would work toward forming a larger graduate program, which would include a doctorate program and an increase in research.
In his free time Gaunt draws, writes and travels with his wife, Virginia, he said. The couple has four children, who do not live at home, he said.
W. Mike Martin University of California at Berkeley
Since 1992, Mike Martin has served as the undergraduate dean and vice chair of the department of architecture at the University of California at Berkeley. He also has worked as the interim director of facility planning at the California Polytechnic State University and as the undergraduate dean at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has taught at California, Colorado, Washington and Kansas State University.
Martin received his doctorate in architecture from California in 1983.
Jay Stein University of Florida
After teaching grade school in Harlem and conducting research at The New York
Martin was not available for comment.
Times, Jay Stein said, he "found" himself in urban planning.
"It was the '60s and '70s, and I wanted to make a positive contribution to society," he said. "After teaching, I wanted to affect policy issues at a different level."
Stein, after receiving bachelor's and master's degrees in political science, earned a doctorate in urban planning from the University of Michigan in 1976.
He then taught at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the State University of New York at Buffalo, serving as acting dean for one semester at Buffalo.
"I have been to Lawrence before and thought that it was a nice place to raise a family," he said. "I like the quality of life there."
In 1898, Stein became the chair of the department of urban regional planning at the University of Florida.
During his first year as dean, Stein said,
he would work with faculty, students,
alumni and professionals to come up with a
plan for the future of the school.
Stein said that because he had two daughters — Melissa, 3, and Danielle, 6, — he would like to remain in a college town.
The quality of an education is another factor that drew him to KU, he said.
*I would like to move the school to be world class quality.* *he said*
schools, reading stories and teaching sports to his daughters' classes.
Christopher Theis Louisiana State University
He said that he continued to work in the
In 1988, Theis left the University—where he was acting director of the architecture program —to become director of the school of architecture at Louisiana State University.
While at Louisiana State, Theis has worked to increase financial support outside the state system and has secured more computer equipment for the school, he said.
"The role of a dean is largely one of public relations and more and more fund raising," he said. "I feel fortunate to have a number of friends and acquaintances within the Kansas City metropolitan area to not feel uncomfortable talking about the future of the school."
As dean at the University, Theis said he would work on fund raising and public relations.
"People need to be aware of what goes on in the school," he said. "There are plenty of initiatives right now that need focused attention."
James Wilcox / KAMEAM
Nan Sook Moon, daughter-in-law of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, speaks about "The True Parents" and other beliefs of the Unification Church. She spoke to an audience Saturday in the Big 8 Room of the Kansas Union.
Rev. Moon's beliefs reach KU audience
By Angelina Lopez
Kansan staff writer
Sporadic bursts of applause and shouts of "Yes!" came from the people that packed the Big 8 Room in the Kansas Union Saturday night to hear the message of the Unification Church.
But only a University Daily Kansan reporter and photographer came to hear the message of the group in 1978, a time when the members of the Unification Church were commonly known as "Moonies."
Nan Sook Moon came to the University of Kansas Saturday to promote the word of her father-in-law, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the Unification Church.
"God has asked the Rev. Sun Myung Moon to bring a new revelation to the American people," Nan Sook Moon said.
The revelation, she said, was that Moon and his wife, Hak Ja Moon, are the first True Parents, the first two to develop a family based on serving God and humanity.
"We know the direction that humankind must go," Nan Sook Moon said. "With the help of God, we will lead the world there."
Jesus was supposed to have been the first True Father, Hong said, but he was crucified before he found a wife. Rev. Moon, therefore, has been sent to complete Jesus's unfinished work, she said.
Young Sook Hong, missionary for the Unification Church, said that the basis of the Unification religion was that God wanted to create a heaven on earth and believed this could be done through the family.
Although the reaction to Moon's message was received enthusiastically on Saturday, the Moonies have not always gotten such support in Lawrence.
Timothy Miller, associate professor of religious studies, said he could not point out any particular reason why the Unification Church was unable to build up a membership in Lawrence.
"It may be because of the Kansas rural mentality," he said.
The stories of Pam Fanshier and Jan Osborne, KU students and Unification Church members in 1975, may be another reason for the lack of support.
According to an article in the Oct. 30, 1975 issue of the Kansan, both Fanshier and Osborne became so involved in the Unification Church that their families were concerned that they had lost their sense of reality. Both the families arranged for their daughters to go through deprogramming — long counseling sessions meant to reverse what the families believed were the harmful influences of the church
After the deprogramming sessions, Osborne no longer accepted the teachings of the church, but Fanshier escaped from the sessions before they were complete and returned to the church.
"The media has mocked him as a monster who brainwashes the young for self-benefit," Nan Sook Moon said. "Can anyone disagree that Rev. Moon is the most persecuted religious leader in the world?"
Hong said that the Unification Campus Ministry is planning on opening a chapter in Lawrence.