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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, May 19, 1965
Blind Navigators Direct Sports Car Competition
The sports car rallye was like most others—except the navigators were blind.
It was the second annual Jayhawk Sports Car Club's Braille Rallye Sunday for the students at the Kansas School for the Blind.
In a normal sports car rallye, a course is laid out on regular city streets and highways at normal speeds. The drivers drive according to instructions supplied to them by the navigator in the car's passenger seat.
Ernest Parmer, principal of the school in Kansas City, said the school encouraged its students to participate in events like this.
"This is a real example of teamwork. One of the rallyists can't read, and one can't drive. They have to depend on each other," Parmer said.
The students, who were chosen on the basis of reading accuracy and comprehension by individual teachers, were divided into two classes, Class A, for braille reading students, and class B for partially sighted students who read large print.
This year's rallye, laid out by rallyemaster Chuck Slater, Prairie Village, traversed part of Wyandotte and Leavenworth Counties for 51 miles before ending in Wyandotte County Park.
Ted Mandrell, Pretty Prairie junior, and navigator, Johnny Stoskopf, won the rallye with a total error of only 1.89 minutes. Second place in class A went to Don Good, Peabody senior, and Billy Jordan from the school. Steve Lane, Shawnee Mission sophomore, and his navigator, Stephen Naff, took fourth place.
When the trophies were presented, Williams asked if the students wanted to do it again next year. He was met with a resounding 'Yes!"
With a combined background of study in nuclear engineering and English, a KU Ph.D. candidate is entering the field of theology.
English Instructor To Study Theology
Donald F. Warders, administrative assistant to the director of the freshman-sophomore English program at KU, has been awarded a Rockefeller Brothers Theological Fellowship and a Boothie Ferris Foundation Fellowship to attend Harvard Divinity School in 1965-66.
warders will participate in a program which is established to encourage people to consider the ministry and related fields, even though this has not been their first choice. Warders' thesis for the Ph.D. degree in English is "Character Consciousness of God in Falkner's Novels."
Economics Students Receive Citations
Five junior students in the department of economics have received awards for outstanding scholarship.
Awarded the $125 John Ise award were; Glen T. (Terry) Hammons, Oswego; John R. Toland, Iola, and Gary C. Walker, Wichita. All have a 2.75 or higher grade point average.
Receiving the $100 Domenico Gagliardo scholarship was Michael Vineyard, Wymore, Neb. George (Bill) Frick, Fort Scott, was awarded the $125 A. J. Boyton award. Both have a 2.72 grade average.
Official's Son Dies In Car Explosion
HAZLETON, Pa.—(UPI)—An FBI team joined local and state authorities today in an effort to determine what kind of explosive was used to kill an election official's son when he started his father's car.
Michael Ruggiero, 17, was the victim of the blast which rocked a residential area and sent bits of metal flying in all directions.
It was election day Tuesday and Mike was home from school. His mother, Antoinette, 43, had to do some grocery shopping so he decided to drive her to the store in his father's automobile.
MIKE WALKED TO THE firehouse where his father, a power shovel operator for a strip mining firm, was on duty Tuesday as an election judge and got the key to the 1958 model car, parked only half a block away.
The youth turned on the ignition and the car was blasted to bits in a puff of black smoke. Mike was killed instantly.
An FBI team joined Hazleton and state authorities today in an effort to find out what type of explosion caused Mike's death.
Authorities were unable immediately to determine a motive in the case. They said neither Ruggiero nor his son had any known enemies nor had either received any threats. Police Chief Frank Uzzman said it was unlikely that Ruggiero had any explosives in the family car.
THE BLAST ROCKED a residential area and sent bits of metal flying in all directions.
The elder Ruggiero heard the explosion and raced from the polling place. Ignoring cuts and burns, he dug into the blazing iot wreckage and reached his son's body.
Mike was hurled into the back seat of the demolished auto. The force of the blast was so great that it tore his clothes and shoes from his body.