Naval Academy

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.

Three of them collectively won more than 50 medals and commendations. One became a captain of industry and a philanthropist. All four are Naval Academy graduates who will be awarded the Distinguished Graduate Award by the college's alumni association. The recipients announced last week are retired Rear Adm. Maurice H. Rindskopf, Class of 1938; retired Adm. Thomas B. Hayward, Class of 1948; Ralph Hooper, Class of 1951; and retired Adm. Leighton W. Smith Jr., Class of 1962. The award, created in 1999, honors graduates who are "living role models" to the academy's midshipmen, said George P. Watt Jr., president and chief executive officer of the alumni association and academy foundation, which funds the awards ceremony.

When Naval Academy senior Elise Chapdelaine heard last summer that Cindy Timchal was about to take over the Midshipmen women's lacrosse program as it moves from club to Division I status next year, she didn't know who Timchal was. The former Maryland coach was not surprised that a college club player had never heard of her. She was, however, surprised to learn from a club coach in Texas that the players there had never heard of Maryland's 10-time national-championship...

ARTINI: ACCESSORIES WITH A TWIST 40 Randall St., Annapolis Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Wednesday; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday-Saturday; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. 410-267-0040 Co-existing in cheerful symbiosis in Annapolis is a dry cleaner and a women's accessories shop. Only in the scarce and cramped quarters of the city's historic district could Artini and Cleaning by Riley work out of the same 1,000 square feet. "Cleaning by Riley has been here forever as a drop-off and pick-up location," said Artini co-owner Colleen Joseph.

WASHINGTON -- A former Naval Academy midshipman who appears in sex DVDs allegedly recovered from a Navy physician's house asked his former girlfriend to make a pornographic movie with him when they were dating, the woman testified yesterday. The woman, a senior midshipman testifying in the court-martial of Navy Cmdr. Kevin Ronan, said her ex-boyfriend asked on several occasions to film them having sex and made her feel guilty when she declined. Defense attorneys for Ronan sought to use the woman's testimony to support their contention that the sex videos were made by one or more of the midshipmen who appear in them - not Ronan.

I admit it. That's my back end. I mean, that's the back end of my van. I don't even have to be able to see the license plate, although the City of Baltimore helpfully zoomed in on it for me. That's my 10-year-old, bird's-egg blue van caught in the act by the red-light camera positioned at the intersection of Russell and Hamburg streets. You can tell by the Naval Academy bumper sticker and the Annapolis High lacrosse bumper sticker, although you wouldn't even need those clues. "That van defines you," my daughter said pleadingly during a discussion over who had rights to the next new car in our family.

The more things change at the Naval Academy, where this is Commissioning Week, the more they stay the same. The Sun reported on May 17, 1893, that preparations for the grand graduation at the Naval Academy was the talk of the town in Annapolis: "Except when the State Legislature is in session, Annapolis is never so lively as on the eve of the (final) examinations. Hotels and boarding-houses are already showing signs of animation, and during the next week or two will be crowded to their utmost limits.

As one of a small group of black students at the Naval Academy in the early 1970s, Jim Jackson said he felt isolated at times, with little access to some of the cultural underpinnings he valued growing up in a community of African-Americans. On Sundays, he initially attended mandatory chapel among a sea of white parishioners at a worship service he found unfamiliar and staid. And when Saturdays finally came, there weren't any venues in the community "where you could go to hear good soul music like James Brown."

And you thought it was hard to get into Amherst? Try the U.S. Naval Academy. U.S. News and World Report released today its annual rankings of universities and colleges in America, and it says that the Annapolis institution is tougher to get into than the top colleges. More important for the Naval Academy, perhaps, is that it beat out the Army and Air Force academies in the first rankings to include the service academies. The Naval Academy was ranked 20th among liberal arts colleges in the country, and the U.S. Military Academy in New York came in 22nd.

Naval Academy seniors have taken two of the 20 slots on USA Today's 18th annual All-USA Academic Team. Sean A. Genis and Christopher L. Marsh, both of Western Pennsylvania, were honored for their grades, leadership and extracurricular activities. The contest began with applications from about 600 students nominated by their schools, said program coordinator Tracey Wong Briggs. This is the third year in a row that the Naval Academy has had two students make the list. It is the only school to place more than one student on the list.

In the four seasons senior center Curtis Bass has spent at Navy, the Midshipmen have played in 12 states and the District of Columbia. But this two-week stretch is special for the Texas native. Bass had more than 50 family members and friends in the stands at Rice Stadium on Oct. 10 to watch Navy's 63-14 victory over the Owls in Houston, and he was expecting to have nearly as many Saturday night in Dallas when the Midshipmen (4-2) faced Southern Methodist (3-2). "We get to travel so much," said Bass, who is from Pearland, just outside Houston.

A retired Naval Academy professor was sentenced Friday to serve five years in prison for sexually molesting an adolescent relative and, as expected, did not apologize for a year of sexual assaults that the judge called "just horrific." Patrick Ryan Harrison, 66, former chairman of the Naval Academy's computer science department, told Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge J. Michael Wachs that the allegations that date to 1994 and 1995 cost him family relationships, and that "I will continue to try to rebuild relationships."

DNR police investigating fatal boat collision 2 Maryland Department of Natural Resources Police were investigating a deadly boating accident that occurred Sunday evening on Marley Creek in Anne Arundel County. Richard Hynson, 47, of Glen Burnie died when his runabout collided with another boat carrying a man and his daughter shortly after 6 p.m. near Thomas Point, according to a DNR spokesman. The occupants of the other vessel, identified by Coast Guard officials as John Martins, 42, and Lauren Martins, 13, both of Glen Burnie, were thrown into the water and rescued by people in nearby boats.

History is often a word that people associate with textbooks and professors speaking in monotones. But with the Naval Academy Museum's complete renovation and redesign, the history of the U.S. Navy has become something real and vibrant to academy visitors and midshipmen. The museum reopened two weeks ago after undergoing an $11.6 million head-to-toe makeover. "We completely gutted this building," said Scott Harmon, the museum director. The only things left standing at one point, he said, were "the outside walls and the concrete floors."

Something didn't feel right as Emmett Merchant watched Navy's spring football game in mid-April. Merchant could have been on the field as one of the Midshipmen's starting safeties, but instead he was sitting in the stands. "It was hard," Merchant said. "It kind of hurt, just watching and seeing everybody." Merchant had told Navy coaches at the start of spring practice that he intended to transfer at the end of his sophomore year. (Midshipmen are allowed to resign from the academy without penalty before their junior year.

Considering some of his family members, it's unlikely that Kevin Jackson, the newest member of the Anne Arundel County Board of Education, will be looking for a quick tutorial on school issues. Jackson, a federal worker and Naval Academy graduate, is married to Monique Jackson, an assistant principal at Annapolis Middle School. His late aunt, Helen Jean Holt, taught at Mayo Elementary School for more than 30 years. Another aunt was also an educator. "We sit around and talk about the issues," Jackson, 32, an Edgewater resident, said in a recent interview, though he added that he would be paying close attention to the budget process.

A former Naval Academy professor entered a plea Tuesday morning to charges that he sexually molested an adolescent relative more than a decade ago. Patrick Ryan Harrison, 66, of Hot Springs Village, Ark., did not admit guilt but acknowledged to Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Michael Wachs that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him of second-degree sexual offense. A civilian professor, Harrison taught computer science at the Naval Academy from 1976 until his retirement in 2003, according to academy officials.

Colleges Financial services company to sponsor Army-Navy game The Naval Academy and U. S. Military Academy announced that the United Services Automobile Association, a financial services company, has signed a 10-year agreement to sponsor the Army-Navy football game. This year's game is Dec. 12 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. For the first time, the contest will be held on the second - rather than the first - Saturday in December, making it the only Football Bowl Subdivision game that day. Johns Hopkins: : Football coach Jim Margraff announced a pair of changes to his staff.

Wednesday in Annapolis, the United States Naval Academy welcomed the most racially and ethnically diverse class in its history: 14 percent Hispanic, 10 percent African-American - and perhaps 2 percent to 3 percent homosexual. I added that last part. No one knows how many plebes are gay or lesbian, but studies have placed the percentage of homosexual men and women serving this nation's military in that range, with some 65,000 said to be on active duty. It's a fairly safe assumption that a small percentage of plebes will have to keep their sexuality a secret if they want to graduate from the academy and, after that, fulfill their obligations to the country.

Tears rimmed Joseph Hauser's eyes as he watched his daughter, Charlotte, disappear behind the gymnasium door. Fierce emotions rip at many parents as they drop their children off at college, but more than most, Hauser knew his daughter would not be the same person after a few months away from him. That's the reality for almost all candidates at the U.S. Naval Academy, which welcomed its newest class of 1,230 plebes Wednesday morning. "It's quite a reality check," said Hauser, a resident of Saratoga Springs, N.Y. "It's different than sending your child to a normal college, where you can see them whenever they allow you to. I'm sure she will be different when I see her again.