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Wednesday, January 22, 1997
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Rock has experience from country to city
Chief of staff's role models rural doctors
By Emily Vrabac
Kansan staff writer
Randall Rock has surpassed his seventh-grade dream of becoming a doctor by assuming his new position as chief of staff at Watkins Memorial Health Center.
"I was encouraged by a teacher who gave me extra books to read about medicine," he said.
He stayed with his ambition through high school, when, in addition to his chores on his family's farm south of Hope, he took a training course to become a nurse's aide.
After that course, he became an orderly at Memorial Hospital in Abilene.
Rock eventually came to the University of Kansas to pursue his studies.
"There were more people in my chemistry class at KU than there were in my whole town," he said.
Rock also attended medical school at KU, with his sights set on becoming a family practice doctor.
"The rural doctor was my role model," he said. "Rural family doctors do everything from deliver
babies to take care of grandparents, so that's what I planned on doing."
Rock operated a family practice in Ottawa, where he still resides, before coming to Watkins.
"The major change from Ottawa to KU was that KU wasn't a full spectrum practice," Rock said. "There are very few students who live in nursing homes."
Rock said his experience at KU has given him a new perspective on health care, with the opportunity to educate students about their own health and the health care system outside of the University.
being proactive in health promotion, rather than reactive, is satisfying." he said.
Rock said Watkins is a unique health care facility because it focuses specifically on providing care to students.
"Watkins is more than an emergency room or corner doctor's office," he said. "It's the transition institution that can provide health care in a student-friendly atmosphere."
Rock's own transition to Watkins has taught him a great deal. He first came to Watkins when former Chief of Staff Charles Yockey was called to active duty during Operation Desert Storm.
Rock said that the timing of his arrival here was educational.
"The student body is a very diverse group," he said. "The world
was made a lot smaller here for me because students were from places like Kuwait and Iraq and many other countries."
Rock was a staff physician at Watkins from that time in 1991 until he assumed the role of chief of staff last December.
He said the transition has gone well, and he hopes it will continue on that course.
Others at Watkins agree that Rock has done a good job in his transition to chief of staff.
Kim Schwartz, a registered nurse at Watkins, said everything has gone smoothly.
"There have not been any problems," she said. "His enthusiasm is wonderful, and he has lots of great ideas. He's very approachable and helpful."
Rock is active in the community outside of his work at KU. He is on the board of directors for the Franklin County chapter of Habitat for Humanity and is involved with the Methodist Church in Ottawa, including his role as a tenor in the church choir.
"My voice is best in a group," he said. "My singing is probably more for my enjoyment than the audience's."
Rock also tries to stay active in his three children's lives. He said he thinks they see his profession as both a joy and a burden. They prefer that he do procedures such as
Geoff Krieger / KANSAN
Dr. Randall Rock is the new Chief of Staff at Watkins Health Center. This University of Kansas alumnus has replaced Dr. Charles Yockey.
stitches or drawing blood.
"They could prefer that I not do the grocery shopping because I tend not to bring Cheetos," he said.
with his family, and the Watkins schedule allows him to do so.
He said the most important aspect of his job at Watkins is to serve the students.
Rock said he enjoys spending time
"I am constantly thinking, 'How can we make this better for students? What do they need?'," Rock, said.
Division of cookie-sale profits Longtime manager of Elvis Presley causes Girl Scouts to protest dies of stroke complications at 87
The Associated Press
TRENTON, N.J. — Girl Scout troops in Mount Laurel want more dough from their cookies this year.
Denied an extra dime per box, leaders of 27 troops in southern New Jersey have begun a sales slowdown in protest.
The move appears unprecedented in 61 years of annual cookie sales by the 2.5 millionmember organization, which sold 174 million boxes of Thin Mints, Do-si-dos and other treats in the United States and its territories last year.
But not in Mount Laurel, a middle-class Philadelphia suburb of 31,000.
"I'm not aware of that at all any place in the country," Marianne IIaw, spokeswoman for the Girl Scouts of the United States of America in New York, said yesterday. Things seem to be going well with this year's sale, she said.
The trouble began in November when Mount Laurel's Girl Scout community coordinator, Jan Snyder, said her troops were unsatisfied with the 50 cents their governing council offered per $3 box sold — even though that was up from 40 cents last year.
Snyder, arguing that the council keeps too
much of the proceeds, requested 60 cents per box, said Joanne Goldy, spokeswoman for the council, Girl Scouts of the South Jersey Pines. In exchange, Snyder offered a guarantee that sales would average 110 boxes per scout, slightly more than last year, Goldy said.
It was really too late to act on it this year, she said, because arrangements were set for sales to start Jan. 10. The council governs 11,000 scouts in six southern New Jersey counties.
Besides, she said, the council administrators did not want to be unfair to other troops: "How would the people in the next town feel if they weren't offered the same thing?"
Currently, the bakery gets 81 cents per box, troops get 50 cents, and the council spends the remaining $1.69 on maintaining three Scout camps and other properties, recruiting and training troop leaders, program development, insurance, administration and fund-raising.
After being turned down by the council, Snyer instituted a sales slowdown, under which girls in 27 of the township's 35 Girl Scout troops are selling only the minimum 12 boxes required for troops to participate in other Scout fund-raising projects.
Eight troops in Mount Laurel are ignoring the slowdown. The sale ends Feb. 17.
New York governor not seriously injured in wreck
The Associated Press
ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. George Pataki spent the night in the hospital after a car wreck that left him sore but not seriously injured.
A truck broadsided Pataki's chauffeured car Monday near the executive mansion as he was returning home. He was expected to be released from the hospital yesterday.
Truck driver Tom Ciccione was charged with running a flashing red light, said Patrick
McCarthy, a spokesman for the 51-year-old governor. Ciccoe claimed that he stopped and never saw Pataki's car, a Chevrolet Suburban, until it was too late.
Both drivers suffered only minor injuries. Libby Patakl said her husband was sore. "I'll give a very nice hit," she said.
Mrs. Pataki said doctors had initially been concerned about internal damage to the governor's chest but everything so far is testing out fine.
"It was a very nasty hit," she said.
The Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — Col. Tom Parker, a one-time carnival pitchman who shrewdly guided Elvis Presley's career for 22 years, died yesterday. He was 87.
Parker died of complications of a stroke, said a long-time friend, Bruce Banke.
Parker became Presley's manager in 1955 just as the young Memphis truck driver was breaking onto the national scene as a rock 'n' roll sensation. Parker stayed in the position until Presley died Aug. 16, 1977.
"He was a legendary manager," said Banke, former vice president of advertising and publicity at the Las Vegas Hilton. "He took Elvis Presley from an unknown Memphis country boy to the world's No. 1 entertainer."
Parker was credited with getting Presley a $35,000 recording contract with RCA Victor in the mid-1950s when San Phillips of Sun Records in Memphis decided to sell the contract.
Parker also arranged Presley's early television appearances, including three on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956 and 1957 that helped catapult the young singer to national stardom.
He seemed to exercise firm control over Presley, who affectionately called Parker "admiral." "Colonel" was an honorary title bestowed on Parker in 1948 by Gov. Jimmie Davis of Louisiana.
Parker made 25 percent of Presley's total income at times and 50 percent at other times — figures that some in the Presley circle considered too high.
"arker defended the profits he made, saying, "I sleep very good at night. When they've done all they can with him, then they start picking on me."
"I don't think I exploited Elvis as much as he's being exploited today," Parker said in 1993.
But after Presley died of a diseased heart,
Bruce Banke long-time friend of Tom Parker
the courts ruled that Parker had no legal rights or interest to the Presley estate.
In 1983, Parker agreed to sell an undisclosed number of master Presley recordings to RCA for $2 million. This came as a result of a series of lawsuits against him accusing him of taking financial advantage of Presley. One of the suits was filed by a lawyer for Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie.
Parker was somewhat of a mysterious figure who preferred to stay out of the public eye. Even his birthplace was in dispute. He said West Virginia, but most reference books said the Netherlands.
In August 1987, Parker held a rare news conference as the 10th anniversary of Presley's death approached. He became defensive when he was asked if those around Presley might have saved him by getting help for his drug problem.
"We're here to honor his memory. I think I didn't hear you very well. Thank you," Parker snapped.
Not surprisingly, the news conference had a promotional tie-in: a display in the Elvis suite at the Las Vegas Hilton, where
presley performed between 1969 and 1977.
The public was charged $5 to see photos, placards (one billing Presley as "the nation's only atomic-powered singer") and other show business memorabilia — mainly featuring Parker. The six-day exhibit drew hundreds of Presley fans, and Parker seemed at the height of his glory as he escorted the tours.
He made another appearance in January 1993, when the Presley postage stamp was issued. He said that he had turned down numerous book offers, some running seven figures, because they were looking for the seamy side of Presley's life. He said publishers would tell him "we want dirt," and "I'd tell them I'm not a dirt farmer." Parker was a 300 rounder who enjoyed
arker was a 300-pounder who enjoyed smoking Cuban cigars and was said to have been lacking in social graces — he wore walking shorts, a colorful shirt and a baseball cap to Presley's funeral.
He walked with the help of a cane during much of his adult life because of a bad spine. He enjoyed gambling and was often seen playing roulette and craps in Las Vegas, where he lived from the 1980s onward.
As a young man, he worked in carnivals and fairs, founding the Great Parker Pony Circus and Colonel Tom Parker and His Dancing Chickens. In this act, he placed live chickens on a hot plate covered with sawdust and the chickens "danced" to music.
In the early 1940s, he was the dog catcher in Tampa, Fla.
He became the manager of country singers Eddy Arnold from the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s and Hank Snow from 1954 to 1956. He also managed pop singer Gene Austin, who recorded the hit My Blue Heaven.
He and his wife, Marie, had no children,
she had one son by a previous marriage.
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