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Wednesday, August 18, 1976
University Daily Kansan
Donna Heller an earnest student of law and politics
By KENNA GIFFIN
When you ask people to describe Donna Heller, such as saying "intelligent," "efficient," or "sensitive."
But you'd expect that of a woman who went up the ladder in the League of Women Voters, from Lawrence chapter secretary in 1966 to director of the state board in 1966.
You'd expect that of a woman who went back to law school in 1968, at the age of 40, to fulfill a dream of obtaining her juris doctorate.
And you expect that of a woman who is the first female assistant attorney (generally, she is the first woman to be appointed).
Donna Heller (then Donna Munn) arrived at the University of Kansas in September 1946. She was 18 years old, fresh from the plains of Garden City, in western Kansas.
She pledged Sigma Kappa sorority Sept. 14, partly because there wasn't any entrance else.
She didn't let that interfere with her innings, and she said Karauna Kappra records show that she was the best all-around pledge in 1947. She was activities captain, rush captain and first vice captain.
But classwork was her primary concern. It was in a constitutional law class that she
met Francis Heller, the law professor who became her husband.
The professor evidently liked what he saw in his student, because they married in September 1949. He was head of the western civilization department at the time. He is now Roy Roberts professor of law in the school and professor of political science.
They have a son, Denis Wayne, who is majoring in media communications at For. College.
She has a warm, low voice, still enjoys dancing and hasn't gotten used to the bushy hair.
Her associates agree that she's a very private person. But that doesn't diminish her value.
"She always wanted to be the best," John Prett, a former classmate of Holley.
Heller started her career in the Lawrence League of Women Voters in the early '50s. She was secretary in 1965; president in 1957; state vice president from 1969 to 1963 (two terms); state president from 1983 to 1965. He then served as president of the state secretary from 1967 to 1969.
Her law studies interrupted her involvement in the League, although League members did not participate.
In explaining Heller's steady advancement in the League, Marjorie Argersinger, 325 Park Hill Terr., said, "Each job that you've done has been successful or you aren't asked to do it again."
Heller went to many local and state workshops, attended League days at the Kansas legislature and poured her share of punch and coffee at League coffees.
Heller said her most rewarding work came from the Kansas constitutional revision, which she worked on in the 1950s and later revise commission and as a lobbyist.
"The Constitution Revision Commission was the most rewarding because the
legislators put the amendments before the people with little deviation in wording and in the sequence suggested, and they passed Kansas essentially has a new constitution, which is an improvement over the old one," she said.
Heller served on a state commission on the status of women soon after she finished her term on the state League board. She said the commission came at the very beginning of the women's liberation movement.
"It was mostly to get the idea in front of people, especially equal compensation."
She said she didn't think that women who had become successful had a special
responsibility to help other women just because they were women. Women can get ahead by getting out and doing whatever is in their power, but they shouldn't expect extra consideration.
Women don't need to be twice as good as men for the same position, she said, but they do need to project a non-emotional facade.
"It's been proven that women are generally more hard-headed than men," she said, but added that women were still more feminine, "feminine," little girl, weaker-sex image.
It was a desire to do her best that inspired her to return to school in 1988 to pursue her degree. She completed it at Stanford.
to do since the mid-'50s. She already had a B.A. in political science and a certificate in social work. All the same, she started school at Washburn University, then transferred to KU and received her J.D. in 1972.
It wasn't easy.
"My husband was very supportive. My child was in junior high, and Francis was vice-cannonchall," she said. "We knew it would be tough on everyone."
She took constitutional law again from her husband.
"It ruined the dinner table conversation. It was by tacit agreement that we didn't have to talk," she said.
See HELLER page 7
Staff photo by JAY KOELZER
Starry future ahead for sci-fi, Gunn says
Science fiction is headed for its best years in terms of high quality and general acceptance, says James Gunn, professor of science fiction at the University of a science fiction author in his own right.
"I think there is more diversity and opportunity in the field now than ever before." Gum said. "And for the first time ever, I had a chance to speak with children." Children of Durne: 'hn Frank Herbert.'
Gunn recently received the Pilgrim award from the Science Fiction Research Association for his fiction. That work consists of a series of movies made with the KU department of continuing education and a book, "Altered History," illustrated History of Science Fiction."
"Science fiction writing made the landing on Mars a reasonable event for the public to accept," Gunn said. In fact, he was invited to attend a ceremony at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in April when science fiction writers when Vikander landed last month, but he was unable to attend
WITH THE recent landing on Mars of the unnamed Viking I science fiction has been a huge success.
"We are now looking through a television screen at Mars, in a similar way as what H.G. Wells had in mind." Gunn said the time, referring to Welling's book, "The Crystal Man," that we are actually looking at Mars is as wonderful as anything in a fairy tale or folklore."
In addition to becoming a little closer to reality, science fiction has gradually grown. In recent years, the genre
"AFTER WORLD War II, American Studies courses in colleges started teaching Dickens, James and Joyce, and popular novels. You can learn your mysteries and science fiction," be said.
"In 1970, when I joined the English
Gunn said his book, "Alternate Worlds," had developed from a science fiction course that was published in 1975.
Gunn, whose own novel, "The Immortals," was made into a short-lived television series in 1970, said the lack of female characters was a result of ignorance and cowardice.
"What they try to come up with is a repeatable gimmick," he said. "So you get a $4 million man, or a blocian woman, who do the same thing. You have music tunes in to see them do those things."
"TV PRODUCERS know nothing about science fiction, and so when it comes to making the show, they lose their nerve, and the audience does not. But science show, but not a science fiction show."
department full-time, the head of the department approached me about teaching him. I agreed, because I felt a good science fiction course was needed, and because I knew it would force me to write "Alternate Worlds." Each class lecture was a chapter in the book.
Gunn said that despite the scholarly interest in science fiction, it would be quite a while before it was generally accepted. He said many academicians still thought of science fiction as the pulp magazines of the '30s.
"It's hard to shake the old image," he said. "For a person to make a living as a writer in the 30s, he had to work fast, and a writer in the 40s had to work out as first drafts, without any revision."
Gunn said he had two books due to be released in the near future: "The Magicians," in November, and "Kampus," which is set at KU, in January or February.
"Writing is always a hard business, and having an incentive makes it easier," he
GUNN SAID that his book's publishers had suggested enlarging the format of the book to its present "coffee table" size and that he had chosen the many illustrations in it. A paperback edition will be released sometime this fall, he said.
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