University Of Louisville

Philip Grant Davidson Jr., 98, the president of the University of Louisville from 1951 to 1967, died Friday in Nashville, Tenn. Mr. Davidson is credited with integrating the school. During his tenure, the university more than tripled its annual budget.

Frankly, I didn't know college baseball was such a hot media commodity, though I did watch the gripping Cal State Fullerton vs. UCLA super-regional playoff game on ESPN2 on Sunday night. The National Collegiate Athletic Association has become so protective of its rights deal that an NCAA official revoked the credential of a Louisville Courier-Journal reporter and ejected him from the press box on Sunday for blogging from the University of Louisville baseball field during a super-regional game.

Ralph Harper, an adjunct professor of humanities at Johns Hopkins University and retired rector of St. James Church in Monkton, has won the $150,000 Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion for his 1991 book, "On Presence: Variations and Reflections."The award is given jointly by the University of Louisville and the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary to writers and artists who "are able to present ideas in such a way so to inspire the rest of us to the best of our spiritual capabilities," according to David Hester, acting director for the Grawemeyer Award.

Susanne R. Turner, a poet and writer who taught at the University of Louisville and at Towson University, died of breast cancer Sunday at her home in Louisville, Ky. The former Charles Village resident was 40. She was born Susanne Ragland in Summersville, W. Va., grew up in Charles Village and was a 1982 graduate of Eastern High School. She earned a bachelor's degree in 1986 in English and a master's degree in 1988 from what is now Towson University. A writer of poetry and prose, Mrs. Turner had served as editor of an edition of Grub Street, Towson University's literary magazine.

He was nicknamed the "Golden Arm," but John Unitas is now in bronze -- all 7 feet, 1,000 pounds of quarterback, which makes for an impressive monument.Family, friends and former college teammates were present for the unveiling of the Unitas statue yesterday preceding the dedication of the University of Louisville's new Papa John's Cardinal Stadium, an impressive facility that opened for its inaugural game with the University of Kentucky.The statue was created by sculptor Frederick Kail of Lutherville, a friend of Unitas' for 43 years, who said putting it together was a "labor of love."

A few months ago, Margaret E. Keck couldn't even spell Grawemeyer. Now she's won one.The Johns Hopkins University political science professor, who once wanted to write the great American novel, instead co-wrote a book judged to be one of the great "Ideas for Improving World Order," as the prize is called.As a result, she gets $100,000, half of a little-known but lucrative award named after H. Charles Grawemeyer, the Louisville, Ky., businessman who endowed it with $9 million in 1987.Keck and Kathryn Sikkink of the University of Minnesota won the $200,000 prize for "Activists Beyond Borders," a look at how nongovernmental organizations -- advocacy groups of various kinds -- have ridden the information highway to an increasingly important role on the international political stage.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Mona Cohn doesn't have time for a mid-life crisis -- she's too busy running for homecoming queen at the University of Louisville.At 48, this energetic woman with the perfect 4.0 grade point average set her sights on the crown more than a year ago. And why not? she says. So what if the other candidates are younger than her son Jeffrey, a 28-year-old businessman from Atlanta?"I want people to know life doesn't end at 40," says Ms. Cohn, a former Greyhound bus station manager and dress store owner now in her third year at the university.

George McWhorter's mother taught him to read at age 5 by enticing him with the Tarzan novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs.For Kevin Hancer, Mr. Burroughs was "the author that nobody in school was going to tell me about." Reading the Tarzan epics -- there are 24 novels -- was an act of rebellion for the teen-age Hancer.Now adults, Mr. McWhorter and Mr. Hancer continue to be held in the primordial grip of the ageless apeman, who is still swinging as he celebrates his 80th birthday this year.Mr. Hancer runs the Jungle Club, a loosely organized club of fans and collectors, out of his home in Edina, Minn.

Susanne R. Turner, a poet and writer who taught at the University of Louisville and at Towson University, died of breast cancer Sunday at her home in Louisville, Ky. The former Charles Village resident was 40. She was born Susanne Ragland in Summersville, W. Va., grew up in Charles Village and was a 1982 graduate of Eastern High School. She earned a bachelor's degree in 1986 in English and a master's degree in 1988 from what is now Towson University. A writer of poetry and prose, Mrs. Turner had served as editor of an edition of Grub Street, Towson University's literary magazine.

TOWSON -- Community groups from older, lower-income neighborhoods that need money to make physical improvements can get up to $10,000 through the county's Community Conservation Action Grant program by applying before July 20.Groups are required to match 25 percent of the grants -- at least half in cash -- for projects such as community tree maintenance, welcoming signs, renovations to a community center building or other physical projects.The county has up to $200,000 annually for the program, half of which is supplied by the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - What if Baltimore County schools absorbed Baltimore City schools, and families in the newly formed district had a wide choice of schools in a carefully crafted plan intended to promote racial diversity? Such a "metropolitan" cure to school segregation has been discussed for years. I have in my hopeless chest a lawsuit drafted by a local lawyer that would have forced a city-county merger three decades ago. It was never filed. What didn't happen in Baltimore, however, did occur 30 years ago in this river city that plays host to the Kentucky Derby.

Chang-Lin Tien, 67, who as chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, was the first Asian-American to head a major U.S. university, died Tuesday, the school announced. He had suffered a stroke after surgery for a brain tumor two years ago. An expert on thermal science, Mr. Tien, an engineering professor, helped developed the insulating tiles for the space shuttle and worked on the Saturn rocket boosters used in the space program. In 1999, the International Astronomical Union renamed an asteroid Tienchanglin in his honor.

Philip Grant Davidson Jr., 98, the president of the University of Louisville from 1951 to 1967, died Friday in Nashville, Tenn. Mr. Davidson is credited with integrating the school. During his tenure, the university more than tripled its annual budget.

A few months ago, Margaret E. Keck couldn't even spell Grawemeyer. Now she's won one.The Johns Hopkins University political science professor, who once wanted to write the great American novel, instead co-wrote a book judged to be one of the great "Ideas for Improving World Order," as the prize is called.As a result, she gets $100,000, half of a little-known but lucrative award named after H. Charles Grawemeyer, the Louisville, Ky., businessman who endowed it with $9 million in 1987.Keck and Kathryn Sikkink of the University of Minnesota won the $200,000 prize for "Activists Beyond Borders," a look at how nongovernmental organizations -- advocacy groups of various kinds -- have ridden the information highway to an increasingly important role on the international political stage.

He was nicknamed the "Golden Arm," but John Unitas is now in bronze -- all 7 feet, 1,000 pounds of quarterback, which makes for an impressive monument.Family, friends and former college teammates were present for the unveiling of the Unitas statue yesterday preceding the dedication of the University of Louisville's new Papa John's Cardinal Stadium, an impressive facility that opened for its inaugural game with the University of Kentucky.The statue was created by sculptor Frederick Kail of Lutherville, a friend of Unitas' for 43 years, who said putting it together was a "labor of love."

TOWSON -- Community groups from older, lower-income neighborhoods that need money to make physical improvements can get up to $10,000 through the county's Community Conservation Action Grant program by applying before July 20.Groups are required to match 25 percent of the grants -- at least half in cash -- for projects such as community tree maintenance, welcoming signs, renovations to a community center building or other physical projects.The county has up to $200,000 annually for the program, half of which is supplied by the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation.

Frankly, I didn't know college baseball was such a hot media commodity, though I did watch the gripping Cal State Fullerton vs. UCLA super-regional playoff game on ESPN2 on Sunday night. The National Collegiate Athletic Association has become so protective of its rights deal that an NCAA official revoked the credential of a Louisville Courier-Journal reporter and ejected him from the press box on Sunday for blogging from the University of Louisville baseball field during a super-regional game.

Soon, John Unitas will become acquainted, in person, with a replica of himself, a creation In bronze that will serve as the centerpiece for the University of Louisville's new football stadium. The statue, spectacularly realistic, is in its final stages, approaching completion with only a matter of weeks before being prepared for delivery.The impressive work has been produced by one Frederick Kail, who first sculptured miniature football figurines of the Baltimore Colts to help pay his tuition at the Maryland Institute.