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University Daily Kansan, October 9, 1981
Great People
Famous people
From page 3
engineering draftsman and flight test observer. He also took flying lessons and made his first solo flight in a Cessna 120.
ONCE HE STARTED, Engle just went on flying. He entered the Air Force Flight School in 1966 and in 1963 was accepted into the Aerospace Research Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California, a program that trains pilots for manned space flights.
Engle joined NASA as an astronaut for the Apollo moon program in 1968. He was a member of the back-up crew for first flight of the Columbia last year.
Kansas has not ignored the accomplishments of its native astronaut. Chapman, Engle's hometown, turned Labor Day into Joe Engle Day in 1965. Joe Engle Days are also celebrated in San Luis Opisio and Bakersfield, Calif.
Robert H. Kaul
Robert E. Kaul served as Kansas Supreme Court Justice for 12 years, but he said that when he graduated from law school, he wanted the just wanted to find a job as a lawyer.
"In 1935, jobs were pretty scarce," Kaul said. "The only real offer I had was with an insurance company for $80 a week."
Instead, he and his partner formed their own law firm in Warnego, in Potawatomi County. In 1938, Kau became county attorney. He didn't but he was on the way to a 1965 appointment to the Kansas Supreme Court.
He didn't imagine himself as a judge in law school, Kaul said, but he was always determined to graduate and practice law. Although it was the Depression and money was scarce, he didn't give up.
"I had to lay out a time or so, I could get enough money to pay tuition," she said. But most of the students were working, we did not. I have the loan programs you do now.
IT WASN'T ALL work and hard times,however.
"I'd do it all over again, hard times and all."
"We had 3.2 beer when we were in law school, and we'd drink and have sessions and talk shop." Kuai said. "I names our dates got pretty bored."
After graduating, Kaul began a Kansas judicial career that was interrupted by World War II. He entered the Naval Reserve and served in the Navy for 21 years. Diplomates he was also senior trial judge advocates for the 11th Naval District.
He returned to law practice in Wameroo after the war and was appointed state assistant insurance commissioner in 1947. He became judge of the 36th District of Kansas, now the Second District, in 1949. He served as district judge until his Kansas Supreme Court appointment.
Kaul said the court considered new kinds of cases during his term, particularly in the areas of racial and sex discrimination.
"The direction of the court was to recognize legally things that weren't considered before," he said. "I say we upheld cases in instances that lower courts would have been thrown out 20 years earlier."
HE RECEIVED a few threatening letters during his terms as a district and as an appellate judge, Kaul said, but he realized it was part of the job.
"It's not an uncommon thing at all," he said. "Most judges get threatening letters."
He was a bit apprehensive one time when a writer of a threatening letter escaped from prison, but the man was eventually captured, Kaul said.
During his time on the Kansas Supreme Court, Kaul also was vice chairman of the Judges Retirement Board and a member of the Governor's Office on Criminal Administration. He retired from the court in 1977.
Stanley Learned can say something few people who weren't KU chancellors can say—a KU building is named for him.
Learned, who graduated from the KU School of Engineering in 1924, gave his name to Learned Hall, which houses the school today.
Stanley Learned
LEARNED WORKED for Phillips Petroleum Co. for 43 years and was its president from 1962 to 1967, but he doesn't attribute the decision to name Learned Hall for him to his success at Phillips.
"I feel quite honored, but it was largely done on the basis of the funds I raised for them," he said.
Learned estimated he helped raise $20 million for the project.
"I think it's marvelous," he said. "It needs a huge library for the books they use, and we're trying to raise the funds for that, now."
He has returned to see the building a number of times, he said.
Learned's commitment to the School of Engineering was also evident in his undergraduate years. He said he spent most of his time studying and had the top grade point average of his engineering class.
The engineering library is now in the basement of the Satellite Union.
**THAT STUDYING eventually paid off.** Although Learned said he didn't have a specific job plans when he graduated, he soon found a job with Phillips.
"I was offered a bit of money to offer," she said. "didn't have any hesitation," he said.
Phillips was a relatively small company when Learned joined it in 1924. By the time he became president, it was an international one. The expansion took place when Learned was vice president, partly on his advice.
Although Phillips was in the forefront of expanding research and develop-ment for energy, Learned said, the company did not foresee today's oil shortage.
"I don't think in those early days anyone was aware of it," he said.
IN FACT, he said, Texas once regulated the amount of oil Phillips could pump out of Texas wells because there was a market oil glut.
Although Learned officially retired as president almost 15 years ago, he hasn't given up working at the company. He still has his own office.
"I come to the office every day," he said. "I like to keep involved."
Black alumni offering job opportunity fair
By CATHERINE BEHAN Staff Reporter
Lizzie Anne Smith was the first black student to enroll at the University of Kansas in 1876. Blanche Ketene Bruce was the first black student to be graduated from KU in 1885.
However, the first Black Alumni Committee did not begin until 1975. Leslie Saunders-Turner, committee coordinator said.
Few black alumni were involved with the University of Kansas in association and they rarely came back from college to memories of being black at KU, she said.
"The idea for it began with a handful of black alums in 1975 who were concerned that there was not enough black participation in the Alumni Association and not enough students in University affairs." Turner said.
Turner, a 1974 KU graduate, said more people were getting involved in the committee because they would have liked to have had something like the committee when they attended KU.
"They're finding they can help," she said. "Some are bitter after the
bad times here, and they see that we can do the service or input that we wish was here when we were."
MARSHALL JACKSON, assistant director of admissions and records and charter member of the committee, said the committee was started to have more input in University affairs.
The major activity of the committee is to work with black students at KU and counsel them in choosing and getting a job after graduation.
The Black Career Conference, scheduled for this weekend, with an opportunity to meet potential employers, and learn about careers.
COMPANIES AROUND the country pay a fee for a booth at the job fair to recruit for summer internships. In addition, orientation after graduation, Turner said.
The committee also provides scholarships for students at KU. They are named in honor of Smith and Bruce.
THE BRUCE-SMITH awards are given to four students each year and are based on academic achievement. Two returning students and two entering freshmen receive the awards.
The committee has grown in the past six years from a handful of several hundred active members who have five times a year, Jackson said.
Someone this special doesn't come along every day.
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