Degree

A retired Naval Academy professor has been charged with sexually abusing a female relative when she was 12 to 14 years old. Patrick Ryan Harrison, 66, of Hot Springs Village, Ark., was charged Friday with three counts of second-degree rape, five counts of second-degree sex offenses, a third-degree sex offense and a fourth-degree sex offense. Now 27, the woman told Anne Arundel County police in December that she was sexually abused from 1994 to 1996 in Harrison's former residence in Annapolis, according to charging documents.

Dennis Mangold has a NOAA Weather Radio up in Ten Hills. "I hear them use the terms `heating degree days,' and `cooling degree days.' What are they and how are they computed?" Degree days are a proxy measure of demand for heating or cooling energy. Got a pencil? Take the day's average temperature. Subtract to find the difference from 65 degrees. If today averages 50 degrees, that's 15 heating degree days. A 75-degree average yields 10 cooling degree days. Tallied by month or season, they provide useful comparisons.

Richard William Luckan, a retired banker and Vietnam War veteran who enjoyed gourmet cooking and dining, died of melanoma and leukemia Saturday at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air. He was 62. Mr. Luckan was born in Baltimore and raised in Towson. He attended Loyola High School and graduated from Parkville High School in 1963. He earned a degree in 1967 from the University of Baltimore School of Law and a bachelor's degree in economics from Loyola College in 1973. He earned a master's degree in banking and finance from the University of Maryland in 1979.

A 45-year-old man was convicted last week of second-degree attempted murder and other charges in the stabbing of a Columbia man in the victim's home.Charles E. Fitzgerald, of no fixed address, is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 18 for second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault, second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and telephone misuse.Fitzgerald was upset at a former friend, David Seay, 28, of the 10400 block of Blue Arrow Way. On March 7, he went to Seay's house and stabbed him several times with a pair of scissors, authorities said.

Mayoral candidate Mary W. Conaway refused yesterday to release her college transcripts to resolve questions over how she attended a Washington seminary full time while working as register of wills.Conaway, 56, received a master of divinity degree from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, which she attended full time from 1988 to 1991.First elected register of wills in 1982, Conaway said she completed the courses at night and on weekends at the school, which is an hour from her downtown Baltimore office.

Deborah Ricker Skelly played basketball for the University of Maryland Terrapins from 1972 to 1976. Last Sunday, she graduated."I always wanted to complete my degree," she said. "This program made it possible."Skelly was referring to the Academic Support for Returning Athletes Program, the university's version of a national outreach effort intended to counter the failure of many college players to finish their educations.Since 1989, half of Maryland's 34 participants have graduated. Among them: basketball players Larry Gibson, Cedric Lewis and Derrick Lewis, football players Rick Badanjek, Alvin Blount and Warren Powers, baseball player David Mysel and soccer player Russell Payne.

Students taking classes at Anne Arundel Community College soon will be able to finish their degrees at University of Maryland University College with a minimum of academic, bureaucratic or financial hassle.The two institutions announced a new partnership yesterday that will allow for the seamless transfer of credits from the community college to the university adult education center, which caters to part-time students.The partnership enhances the area's most extensive and well-developed bachelor's degree programs that can be completed without much time, travel or expense, UMUC President Ben Massey boasted at yesterday's announcement.

Enrollment in Carroll Community College's new weekend degree program has exceeded the college's goal, and registration is still open.The popular Saturday program gives students a chance to earn the equivalent of a two-year degree by taking courses on Saturdays for four to six years. Students can earn the degree sooner if they also take a course during the week or over the Internet. Only two online courses are available, but more are coming next semester."There are 85 or 86 students enrolled now [in the Saturday courses]

It's the green stuff: Praise from your supervisor may be essential to your job motivation, but nothing works as well as money. A survey of 1,387 U.S. workers by American Express finds that workers are three times more likely to say that money motivates them over any other factor. Fifty-three percent of workers say they are more motivated in their jobs today compared with five years ago, while 14 percent say they are less motivated than in the past.Education pays: Culling information from the U.S. Census Bureau, Career Opportunities News reports just how much lifetime earnings rise by the level of education completed.

The Johns Hopkins University yesterday expelled a senior who has acknowledged killing his friend on the university library nTC lawn, saying he had egregiously broken campus codes prohibiting students from threatening the safety of others on campus.The university rejected the pleas of former Hopkins student Robert J. Harwood to award him the college degree he believed he had earned. Harwood, now 23, completed his courses several months before shooting Hopkins sophomore Rex T. Chao, 19, dead in April 1996.

John R. "Jack" Yates of Charles Village was killed Aug. 4, when his bicycle hit a truck near downtown. Charles G. "Boots" Pratt of Randallstown was killed Aug. 9, when a gunman shot him in a parking lot in Cherry Hill. Yates was 67, had been busy working on his third master's degree, and had two children and six grandchildren. Pratt was 18, had been busy working with the Hillside street gang, according to police, and had just escaped an attempted-murder charge because a witness recanted.

In 1955, Shirley Smith's parents quashed her goal of becoming a teacher. Higher education, they told her, was a waste of her time and their money, the purview of men. Smith obeyed, but only temporarily. More than a half-century later, at age 72, she will receive her degree from Towson University this week after completing course work in women's studies - a field that didn't even exist when her parents discouraged her from pursuing college. A petite, energetic woman with a big laugh, she's not the oldest to receive a degree from the state's second-largest university; but with a lifetime of experience, three children and four grandchildren, she's not your typical collegian, either.

A retired Naval Academy professor has been charged with sexually abusing a female relative when she was 12 to 14 years old. Patrick Ryan Harrison, 66, of Hot Springs Village, Ark., was charged Friday with three counts of second-degree rape, five counts of second-degree sex offenses, a third-degree sex offense and a fourth-degree sex offense. Now 27, the woman told Anne Arundel County police in December that she was sexually abused from 1994 to 1996 in Harrison's former residence in Annapolis, according to charging documents.

Perry Hall man dies of injuries in house fire Yan Chen, 53, who was injured while trying to rescue his wife and grandchild during a fire Friday at his Perry Hall home, died of his injuries over the weekend, authorities said. Chen was one of six members of an extended family living in a home in the 5000 block of Forge Haven Drive. He had initially escaped unharmed, but went back inside. Two neighbors found Chen collapsed in the foyer and carried him to safety, but he had suffered severe smoke inhalation and serious burns.

A 56-year-old man was fatally shot Wednesday night in Southwest Baltimore, as a candlelight vigil for a homicide victim from last week was wrapping up just a few blocks away. More than 70 people gathered in the street in front of Tomasina Degree's South Wickham Street home Wednesday night to mourn her son, Kip, 23, remembering his love of dancing and warning of the dangers of gun violence. But as the crowd dispersed, several patrol officers sent to monitor the vigil jumped into their cars to respond to a shooting less than a mile away in the 5400 block of Jamestowne Court.

Police identify victim in Walbrook shooting Police have identified a man fatally shot on a street in the Walbrook community Tuesday night as Rubin Nelson, a 26-year-old who lived in the 3100 block of Clifton Ave. Southwestern District officers found Nelson bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds in the 1900 block of N. Rosedale St., and he was pronounced dead at the scene by city Fire Department medics. Police had no suspects and knew of no motive. Nelson was convicted on drug charges in 2002 and received a seven-year suspended sentence, and in 2003 was found not guilty on handgun charges.

Columbia man charged in shooting death A Columbia man has been arrested in the fatal shooting Wednesday night of Tamba K. Nyorkor in the victim's apartment in the Village of Kings Contrivance. Information from witnesses led to the arrest of Evan Marcel Gaines, 18, of the 9800 block of Softwater Way, Howard County police said. After a woman called 91, officers went to the victim's home in the 9700 block of Clock Tower Lane about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and found Nyorkor, 26, dead from a bullet wound.

Eugene William Pierelli, a retired attorney and longtime Ellicott City resident, died of pulmonary fibrosis Sept. 25 at Gilchrist Hospice Care. He was 83. Born and raised in Pittston, Pa., Mr. Pierelli enlisted in the Marine Corps after graduating from Pittston High School in 1941. He served in the Pacific and took part in the Battle of Tinian. After being honorably discharged, he earned a bachelor's degree in accounting in 1948 from the old Baltimore College of Commerce. In 1950, he earned a master's degree in business administration from the University of Miami.

A Baltimore Circuit Court jury convicted a man yesterday of robbing an 82-year-old woman of her pocketbook outside a KFC restaurant and stabbing her with a knife when she tried to fight back. Rozza Alston, 40, who lived three blocks from the KFC at North Avenue and St. Paul Street, was found guilty of second-degree assault, robbery with a deadly weapon and openly carrying a dangerous weapon. He faces a maximum of 33 years in prison. The jury acquitted Alston of attempted first-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder and first-degree assault.

A 19-year-old who took part in a fatal attack on a Dundalk teen in January pleaded guilty yesterday in Baltimore County Circuit Court to assault and conspiracy charges. Robert L. Wood of the 1700 block of Meath Road punched Joshua Gibson, 16, in the face as the victim walked on a Dundalk street the night of Jan. 28, prosecutors said, and Gibson then was fatally shot in the face and back by a second attacker. Gibson was chosen at random by his assailants, prosecutors said. Wood pleaded guilty to second-degree assault, conspiracy to commit second-degree assault and accessory to murder after the fact in Gibson's death.