friday, October 17, 2003
homecoming
the university daily kansar
17B
FROM SKY-SOAR TO EYESOAR — 11.20.1967 KU unveils preliminary architectural plans for its new humanities building, later named Wescoe Hall, a 25-story skyscraper that would have been the tallest building in Kansas.
FROM SKY-SOAR TO EYESOAR 11.20.1967
CHARISMA AMIDST THE CHAOS —
3.18.1968
3.18.1968
Senator Robert F. Kennedy launches his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination with twin speeches at K-State and KU.
FOUR FOR FOUR — 10.15.1968
Former Jayhawk AOerter uncorks a toss of 212 feet,61/2 inches in the discus finals at the 1968 Olympic games in Mexico City, becoming the first person to win a gold medal for the same event at four consecutive Olympics
four consecutive Olympics.
THE GREENING OF GERALD FORD 2.21.1978
Former US President Gerald Ford heads the list of dignitaries assembled at KU to dedicate new Green Hall, home of the KU School of Law.
Peter Thompson, professor of painting, looked at photographs from his colleague Luke Jordan in the annual design faculty art show.
By Crystal Futrell
correspondent@kansan.com
Kansan correspondent
It's a sure bet most students and alumni haven't heard of Peter S. Thompson. But nearly all have benefited from his legacy.
Since his arrival as a painting instructor in 1965, Thompson has contributed to the expansion of the art department and to the beautification and artistic advancement of the entire university. Some of his better known accomplishments include playing an influential role in the construction of the Lied Center and the Bales Organ Recital Hall. The stained glass windows and ornate woodwork surrounding the organ in Bales were personally designed by Thompson.
Despite a lack of encouragement from his father, an illustrator and commercial artist himself Thompson said he always knew he wanted to be an artist.
he wished, "My father didn't get to finish college, so to him education was everything," he said.
everything, he was able to choose art and still study with some of the best. He attended the Rhode Island School of Design where he received a bachelor's degree in painting. Immediately following graduation, he pursued his master's at Yale and spent a semester teaching there after he
graduated.
graduated.
At 25, he came to the University of Kansas. At 28, he was chairman of the art department
His promotion came at a time ripe for change.
"The 60s was a strange time, but it was an incredibly exciting time," he said. "There was a real energetic edge, and it changed things."
One of the things it changed was Thompson's department. Within one year of becoming chairman, Thompson hired six young modern art instructors including Roger Shimomura,
Gerald Lubensky and Philip Blackhurst, all of whom are active faculty today.
The influx of young and experimental artists was welcomed with open arms by the older and more traditional faculty.
more traditional "We always said we didn't want to hire ourselves," Thompson said.
said.
In 1975, Thompson was promoted to associate dean of the School of Fine Arts and then to dean in 1986. It was a position he held for 13 years. Within that time, the Lied Center was born, and the design department was
introduced to the mainstream world of computer graphics.
Roger Shimomura, now a distinguished professor of art who was personally recruited by Thompson, remembers his friend's seamless influence as dean.
"He was good for everyone within the School of Fine Arts, which is not an easy thing to do because we're so different with our dancing, music and art. But he was able to lead all of us very well," Shimomura said.
But in 1999, Thompson decided to step down.
"Being dean is a seven-day work-week job, but I loved every minute of it."
But his health couldn't keep up with the schedule. In November 1998, Thompson had open heart surgery. That December he returned to work. At the end of the following semester, he surrendered his title and returned as a full-time painting instructor in the fall. He continues to teach today.
today. Liz Mohl, St. Louis junior and graphic design major, is in Thompson's life drawing class. She said Thompson was laidback, but not easy.
"He always makes you take a step beyond your drawing," Mohl said.
— Edited by Andy Marso
Nation flipped for 'Fabulous' Lawrence band in 1960s
By Misty Huber correspondent@kansan.com Kansan correspondent
In 1964 in Lawrence, a group of young musicians were thrown together, given three days of rehearsal and sent on a threemonth tour. The band, The Fabulous Flippers, would go on to become one of the most successful bands the Midwest has ever produced.
"No band in the Central United States drew larger crowds, caused more excitement or had more influence on thousands of aspiring rock musicians than The Flippers," according to the Nebraska Music Hall of Fame Web site.
Records.
The Flippers had a different look and a different type of sound than other local bands. In matching suits, the eight-piece show band played rhythm and blues. It recorded eight singles, and was best known for The Harlem Shuffle released on Cameo-Parkway
The Flippers played at Liberty Hall, 642 Massachusetts St., in the mid-1960s when it was The Red Dog Inn, the No.1 college venue, said Dennis Loewen, Lawrence resident and former vocalist and instrumentalist for the Flippers.
Contributed photo
"That place used to just rock," he said.
Bob Basow, University of Kansas associate professor of journalism, was a University student in the 1960s and a fan of the band. He said the Flippers' music helped students have fun and forget about their lack of control over classes and the Vietnam War.
Loewen said his most exciting moment with the Flippers was about two and a half years after the group was formed when it was invited to New York to make a featurette with 20th Century Fox called Here comes Charlie with Charlie Barnett's Big Band. It played with a number of well-
Dennis Loewen, Lawrence resident was a member of The Fabulous Flippers.
Loewen said his life was vastly different than it was during the reign of the Flippers. Now married with six children, he said there were times when it seemed
"I thought to myself, 'Yeah, we've probably made it,'" Loewen said.
known bands including The Tonight Show musicians.
that the Flippers had happened to another person.
In the early 1990s, the Flippers reunited and began touring again. In 1998, the band was inducted into the Iowa Music Hall of Fame and into Nebraska's the next year.
At the end of 2002, then-gubernatorial elect Kathleen Sebelius asked the Flippers to play at her inaugural gala dance. Sebelius' husband Gary was a friend of the Flippers' saxophone player, Doug Crotty, and had joked that if Kathleen won the election, the Flippers would reunite to play for the dance. Gary said he and Kathleen had wanted to have Kansas bands, and the Flippers was the premier show band when he was in high school and when he attended Kansas State University.
Although Loewen doesn't have any other reunions planned, he said he wouldn't mind one last show at Liberty Hall.
- Edited by Doyle Murphy
CAMPS: Groups pleaded their case but Board of Regents took no action
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15
will not be long before I must evacuate so please rush your reply."
The letter was sent by air mail April 7. Malott received it April 10. He read it and wanted to accept Horike's application, but the Board of Regents already made its decision.
AN OUTPOURING OF SUPPORT
The minutes from the Board of Regents meeting on March 30 contained a brief note regarding Japanese students.
Japanese students Kansas universities "could not accept displaced Japanese- American students from West Coast schools." The minutes did not give a reason.
Letters poured into Malott's office. Support for Japanese students was rampant, including fraternities and sororities, student groups, and individual students and community members.
depts and co. The Men's Student Council said it voted in favor of accepting the students. The Student Christian Federation said "every effort should be made so Japanese-American students could attend our school."
The letters came from everywhere. Students heard about scholarships offered by the universities
World War II. When his family was forced out of Washington after Pearl Harbor, he lived on the state fairgrounds before being moved to a camp.
"I should have no objection at all, myself, to taking American students of Japanese ancestry, but it is a matter of policy for the Board."
The camp housed about 10,000 Japanese Americans, including Horike.
including Horike.
After being denied entry to the University, the military shipped Horike and his family to the same Idaho camp, said Janis Horike, his daughter.
Then the government loaded Shimomura and his family onto a train, closed the blinds so they couldn't see where they were going, and left them at the Minidoka Camp in Hunt, Idaho, for two years. His grandparents were there for three years.
Shimomura said it was a terrible place. People lived eight to a
being in the car to a house
At the fairgrounds, he and his family slept either in vacant offices with no furniture or in horse stalls with hay as bedding.
For each letter, Malott had a reply. To the Men's Student Council, he wrote, "matters of policy for state schools are determined by the Board of Regents."
of Washington and California and promised to match them. They offered their homes, their food.
Chancellor Deane Malott in response to requests for transfer admittance to the University
but support. But the regents had spoken Japanese-American students couldn't come to Kansas.
For the YMCA, Malott wrote, "The policy of the state schools are determined by the Board of Regents."
"It was so shameful," Shimomura said. "It was just so hideous."
Many students didn't understand. Everyone wanted the students. Groups such as the Wesley Foundation pledged their help and support.
A PAINFUL TIME
Malott was less official to individual students. "I should have no objection at all, myself, to taking American students of Japanese ancestry," he wrote to a student protesting the board's decision, "but it is a matter of policy for the Board."
A PAINFUL TIME Roger Shimomura, professor of art, lived in Seattle during
room that was the size of a one car garage, he said.
"We hung blankets across the room to try to get some sense of privacy," he said.
Shimomura and his family left their lives behind in Seattle, as did many
Japanese Americans, only to find it gone when they returned.
"People could only take what they could carry. That's how people lost most of their property," he said.
After four years in the Idaho camp, Horike returned to Seattle. He started a family and finished his degree at Puget Sound. His daughter said Horike never could mention what happened in the camp.
in the camp. "It was a very difficult time for many Japanese Americans," she said.
Shimomura agreed. His parents didn't talk about the camp until the reparation hearings of the 70s.
Now Shimomura, in his final year teaching at the University, looks back on the regents' decision as one of the state's and the University's darkest hours.
"I've invested my whole career in this place. I'm going to retire in the spring," he said. "I would have liked to think the Board of Regents could have made the right decision."
FREE WINTER BREAK TRIP!
Edited by Ehren Meditz
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Tuesday, October 21, 2003 at 7:30 pm Naismith Cafeteria
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