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Monday, February 16. 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Chad DeShazo/KANSAN
HAYS — Gerald Seib, Wall Street Journal reporter and former Kansan editor, talks with Susanne Shaw, associate professor of journalism at KU, and Paul Jess, professor of journalism, after a press conference. A delegation of KU faculty members went to Havs to welcome Seib home.
Seib
Continued from p. 1
honest with his captors, to have complete faith in God and to not apologize for who he was or what he did.
Seib said his ordeal produced one thing for which he was grateful. It brought together his four brothers and two sisters for the first time since 1981. His mother had been trying to arrange a family reunion for six years, he said.
Before the reception, Seib's family said they had always worried about his working in the Middle East. But they never thought he would be singled out for an act of hostility, they said.
"This is the first time in five years that we've managed to get all the Seib children in the same place at the same time. I went to extreme lengths to organize that," he joked.
Seib's father, Richard, said,
"Our concern was the amount of
traveling he did in that area and the possibility of bombings or hijackings. We never dreamed anything like this would happen.
Seib's wife, Barbara Rosewicz, who is also a Journal reporter and a 198 KU graduate, said that when Seib was invited to tour the Iran-Iraq battlefront, she was worried only because the Iranian government did not take much care to protect reporters visiting battle zones.
Rosewicz, who then was covering the Islamic Summit Conference in Kuwait, spoke to Seib the day before he was arrested. When he told her he was in no danger, she called Seib's parents to reassure them about their son.
But, she joked, "You're going to read a story that has Jerry with shells falling all around him.
"Little did we know that just a few hours later Jerry would become the subject of a story involving Iran."
Rosewiz said that when Seh was arrested she had prepared herself for the possibility that he would be detained for a long time. Iron has never before arrested a man of the same situation was unique, she said.
"I wasn't expecting this to be
logical," she said. "At the same time I didn't want to read anything into it."
Richard Seib said, "We knew people were praying for us all over the world, and that was our only consolation."
His wife, Annette, fough back tears as she described the day Iran announced it had released Seib.
"That was the day I broke down. I couldn't take it any more. We had so many hopes raised that weren't being fulfilled," she said.
But when Seib's release was confirmed, "It was pure joy, almost an electric moment," said Dennis Farnery, a journal reporter who helped the Seibs answer calls from the media.
Tom Seib, a basketball coach at Pious Xth High School in Lincoln, Neb., said his brother's experience had drawn the family together in their empathy for other families who had relatives being held hostage in the Middle East.
"We'd like to see them have the same happy ending." he said.
Seib family members said they were looking forward to their reunion.
"We'll tell a lot of stories and have a lot of reminiscing all day." Tom Seib said.
Mortar Board honors professors
Staff writer
By PAUL SCHRAG
Mortar Board, the senior honor society, presented outstanding educator awards to five University of Kansas professors yesterday afternoon.
At a reception in the Watkins Room of the Kansas Union, Mortar Board members honored the professors for their high educational ideals, academic accomplishments and ability to advocate and encourage their students.
"The biggest thing that stands out is their incredible rapport with their students. That shows through in everything they do – the way they present the lectures, the way they give attention to the needs of their students and the fact that they're very approachable," said Paula Koenigs. Wichita senior and man of
the Mortar Board awards commit tee
Receiving the outstanding educator awards were: Don Green, Conger-Gabel distinguished professor of chemical and petroleum engineering; Dwight Kiel, assistant professor of political science; Elaine Sharp, associate professor of political science; Katherine of sociology; and Kathy Suprenant, assistant professor of physiology and cell biology.
Green said, "It's a great honor. This is a great group of students. To be honored by the students themselves is indeed a thrill."
"This is the nicest thing that's happened to me since I've been here," Sica said.
Mortar Board members nominated and chose the professors.
in the fall and is a distinguished member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers. He said good interaction with students, viewing them as junior colleagues.
Kiel teaches courses on ethics, accountability and the history of political theory. He is known for challenging his students to look at politics in ways they are unaccustomed to, said Mike Slind, Overland Park senior.
Sharp has received a National Science Foundation grant to research citizen demands in urban politics. She helps her students develop independent and original thought, said Tony Arrold, Wichita senior.
Green was a HOPE award finalist
Sica received an outstanding scholarship award in 1982 from the Comparative and International Education Society.
Seib cites church records for accelerating his release
Evidence may have convinced captors he wasn't a spy
By PAUL BELDEN
Staff writer
HAYS — Gerald Seib believes that if it hadn't been for some help from half a world away, he still might be in an Iranian prison.
When Father Earl Meyer, pastor of Seib's hometown St. Joseph Church, heard that Seib stood accused of being a Zionist spy, he gathered together the records of Seib's Catholic upbringing and sent them to Iran.
Chad DeShazo/KANSAN
"We sent his baptismal records, first communion, confirmation, marriage," Meyer said. "I don't know if it helped or not, but we did that."
Seib said at a press conference Saturday in Hays, "At some point in the interrogation process, my interrogators started to believe what I was telling them, or seemed to start to believe what I was telling them.
"I think part of the explanation was that the information that a lot of people were gathering, and that my paper in New York was sending along, did get through and into the right hands."
No matter what brought Seib home, the more than 16,000 people of this western Kansas town are ecstatic to have him here.
Lisa Haas, a junior at Thomas More Prep-Marian High School, Seib's alma mater, said she heard of Seib's release when a priest announced it at church Feb. 6. It was the first time she had heard a congregation break into applause during Mass, she said.
The exuberance was not limited to Hays' Catholic community.
While Seib was speaking Saturday to townspeople and reporters in Thomas More's gymnasium, Vernon Mermis, owner of Vernie's Hamburger House, was selling the "Jerry Seib double cheeseburger" at half price.
Similarly, the local Domino's Pizza Parlor named a pizza after Seib and proclaimed Friday "Jerry Seib Dav."
A sign in front of his store said,
"Thank God Jerry is free and at bap
HAYS — Seib answers reporters' questions about his detention in Iran. He attended a press conference Saturday morning before going to a public reception in the gymnasium at Thomas More Prep-Marian High School.
Randy Ridler, at whose wedding Seib was best man, said, "The joke around town is that whatever you want to buy, just tell them that you know Jerry and you'll probably get a pretty good deal."
Roxanne Ruder, who works at Hadley Hospital in Hays, said, "All the patients were talking about it. A lot of them didn't even know the Seibs, but they watched the news and were glad to hear anything."
Her husband, Harvey, who was a high school classmate of Seib's, said he had tied a lot of yellow ribbons on his neck. "We were programs during Seib's cativity
After Seib was released, he said, "I watched him walk across that airport about seven times."
For Dennis Farney, a Wall Street Journal reporter who stayed with the Seib family and helped field phone
calls during the ordeal, the news of Seib's release brought mixed emotions.
Farney said, "You're glad it's over. You're glad he's safe. But there's sort of a letdown. I'm missing the intense feelings of camaraderie and mutual support that I shared with the Seibs."
Not all the residents of Hays appreciated the furor over Seib's return, the
Laurie Schumacher, a junior at the school, said, "Some students got pulled out of class to make posters and it kind of messes up your sche-
Pauline Whittington, a librarian at Hays Public Library, said she never doubted that Seib would be released.
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We have heard nothing but rave reviews for this personal, telling film about his inability to connect with women. "McElvee genuflects to Sherman, but, like a Tarewell Woody Allen, he mostly charts his own career as the strikeout king of the Carolinas." — Jay Carr. Boston Globe. (1985)
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