C LLEGIATETIMES
friday october 31, 2008 blacksburg, va.
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McCain’s mom thanks volunteers CANDACE SIPOS
politcs editor
SEE OUR ELECTION GUIDE INSIDE THE CT FOR EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW TO BE IN THE KNOW ON ELECTION DAY
news WRESCH RECEIVES CONTINUANCE IN DUI CASE Ryan William Wresch received a continuance today in Blacksburg General District Court at the request of his attorney. Attorney Tracy Neyhart asked Chief Judge Gino Williams to grant a continuance until Dec. 17. Neyhart also cited Wresch’s absence while visiting family in Cold Spring Hills, N.Y., as further basis for the continuance. Wresch is charged with driving while intoxicated and misdemeanor marijuana possession. Wresch struck 21-year-olds Amanda Tyus and Kellsye Pitsenbarger when his 2001 Honda Civic sped off-road near the 1000 block of Progress Street.
contest PUMPKIN CARVING CONTEST RESULTS See which of your follew Hokies carved our favorite pumpkins. page four
weather SUNSHINE high 68, low 35
corrections The headline for the article, “Smart Road causes headaches” (CT, Oct. 30) should have read, “Smart Road enables research.” The Collegiate Times regrets this error. Check out a video of the speech Gov. Sarah Palin gave in Salem on Monday on our Web site.
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Classifieds..............7 Sports....................8 Sudoku..................7
An independent, student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903 105th year issue 98
John McCain’s mother Roberta McCain stopped by the Republican Headquarters in downtown Blacksburg yesterday at 3:15 p.m. The 96-year-old enthusiastically thanked volunteers who have been campaigning for her son at the meet-and-greet. She entered the small, packed room lined with McCain-Palin yardsigns and bumper stickers to a roar of the crowd. College Republicans, officials within the Montgomery County Republican Party, and other volunteers for the campaign tripped over each other to see Roberta McCain walk in. The gathering of volunteers crowded into the headquarters, which couldn’t comfortably fit everyone who wanted to see McCain. Some people had to wait outside while she spoke. “Why I’m here is to thank each and every one of you for everything you’ve done,” McCain said. “If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t be holding up our hand in victory on Tuesday night.” She proceeded to admittedly “brag” about her son and his ability to lead the country. “My son, he doesn’t need any on-the-job training,” McCain said. “He’s ready.” She referenced John McCain’s service to the country, mainly his 20 years in the military. “He’s always been a leader. He started serving his country when he was 17 years old and, you know, he never stopped,” McCain said. “Here you have a man whose entire life has been dedicated to God and his country and to people like us in this room.” She not only spoke about John McCain, but the other males in her family who have served in the military, noting that the latest John Sidney McCain in a long line is scheduled to graduate from the Naval Academy this coming May. McCain shared other facts with the audience about John McCain and his father. They were the first father and son to have four stars in the navy, which is the highest honor, she said. Also, they were the first father and son to have two naval ships named after them. She spoke about her grandson who is currently serving in the Marine Corps. He has been in Iraq and Afghanistan. McCain signed posters of her picture and took pictures with people who have worked on her son’s campaign for months. Montgomery County Republican Party Chairman Patty Manthe said volunteers have been working at the headquarters from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. They have tables set up with 30 charging cell phones for volunteers to call Montgomery
PETER VELZ/COLLEGIATE TIMES
Roberta McCain, mother to presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), dropped by the Republican Headquarters yesterday afternoon. County citizens with information about the McCain-Palin ticket. When a volunteer ends one call, he or she starts dialing someone else. Last week, the office collectively made 16,000 calls. They’ve also been going door-to-door to get out their message. Manthe said the next few days before the election will be intense. “I’m sure we’re going to ramp it up in the last week here,” Manthe said. McCain was only in the headquarters for
about 30 minutes, but she was able to personally thank many of these volunteers who are making calls and going door-to-door. The volunteers were certainly appreciative of McCain’s stop by the office. Pam Pettit of Blacksburg said she just moved to town with her husband, who graduated from Virginia Tech. They stopped by the headquarters a couple days ago to get a yard sign, and was informed about McCain’s upcoming appearance. “I’m here … to be a part of the Republican
community and part of the Hokie Nation,” Pettit said, adding that seeing an older woman who is so excited about her son’s campaign was “like a … treasure, really”. Another bystander commented on McCain’s age. “I read something in the Roanoke Times talking about the fact that (John) McCain is too old,” said Tyler Humphreys, an event visitor. “Considering that his mother is out campaigning for him, I don’t see that as a problem.”
Dalmas brothers work hard to Dairy team: identify Mountain Lake remains Utterly awesome at competition ZACH CRIZER
ct news reporter
Virginia Tech alumni Jim Dalmas and John Dalmas solved a mystery that took 87 years to surface in Giles County. The brothers believe they have discovered the identity of human remains recently found in Mountain Lake and are looking to put the case to rest. “Last Saturday, as a matter of fact, my brother found it in a newspaper in Columbia, S.C., called The State,” Jim Dalmas said. “July 26, 1921. That is the paper that said S.I. Felder had fallen overboard at Mountain Lake and divers were trying to recover his body. It didn’t say in that article whether they ever found him or anything about that. Once we found that, we had all the pieces that fit together. When we put them all together, you saw the picture.” S.I. Felder has been suspected to be Samuel Ira Felder. Jim Dalmas said the picture of what happened became clear as he and his brother delved into the past of the generation-old remains.
INITIAL INVESTIGATION Jim Dalmas, a noted author on the Roanoke area and 1960 Tech graduate, initially read a newspaper article on the discovery of the body, and decided he could aid the progress of the case. “Since I’ve done a lot of genealogical research, I thought I might be able to help with the case. Then I got my brother involved, because he’s also interested in genealogy,” Jim Dalmas said. Without official involvement with the police, Jim Dalmas said three items found with the remains offered clues to the identity of the body: a pair of shoes, a ring and a belt buckle with initials. The shoes placed the man in the New York City area. “On the bottom of those shoes it said ‘McCreary,’” Jim Dalmas said. “I discovered that the shoes came from a department store in New York City that existed from sometime in the 1860s until 1953.” However, the ring and belt buckle became the key clues in the case. The belt buckle was scrutinized to give investigators hints at the man’s name. “Police originally felt that the initials on the belt buckle were SCF. I had about five experts, including my brother and myself, look at it, and we concluded it was SGF,”
Jim Dalmas said. The ring, which was correctly presumed to be a class ring, also offered puzzling initials, with the letters “MC” on one side, and “CA” on the other. The Dalmas brothers initially searched for colleges that existed in 1904, with names that began with “M.” Their search yielded six possible matches, but when contacted, all colleges responded with no information on the topic. However, the brothers already had their next lead. “At the time that I learned it was Clemson, I had already got reports from those six schools that they were not the one,” Jim said. “So then I was going to start with the letter ‘C.’ In the meantime, someone noticed that on the side of the ring, in between the letters, there is a tree. That is actually a palmetto. Somebody recognized that as the state tree of South Carolina, and suggested that they pursue schools in South Carolina.” In the early 1900s, what is now Clemson University was known as Clemson Agricultural and Mechanical College, or CAMC. When the brothers contacted Clemson, it turned up no matches with the initials SGF. “The closest one was SIF,” Jim Dalmas said. “So then I looked at the SIF and I went back and looked at the engraver’s art that I had previously found, and concluded that ‘I’ was indeed a possibility.”
THE ALMA MATER’S IDENTIFICATION The match Clemson provided was Samuel Ira Felder. “I got my brother involved heavily at this point,” Jim Dalmas said. “We went back and looked at the census records to see if we could find anybody that matched the criteria of Samuel I. Felder. So we looked at all the census records, and the main thing we discovered was in 1920 he was living in New York City with his wife Catherine. Then, in 1930, she was the head of the household and was listed as a widow.” Another check of an earlier census added feasibility to their New York City match. “In 1900, we found him living with his father, John, in Orangeburg, S.C. So it all kind of fit together. He lived in South Carolina; he went to Clemson,” Jim Dalmas said. Last Saturday’s newspaper discovery helped confirm their strong suspicions. “We also got the Clemson class information and a photograph of the guy. We got his 1916 draft registration card. So we put all these
pieces together and we concluded that the guy at the bottom of the lake is in fact Samuel Ira Felder, who was born in 1884 and died on July 21, 1921,” Jim said. Since Felder was not found for many years, his official date of death is listed as July 23, 1929 on many New York state documents. The Dalmas brothers suspect this is because of a state death statute, but have not confirmed that information. One question that arose with the remains was why they stayed hidden for so long. Jim Dalmas said he obviously did not know the answer, but he offered educated speculation. “Have you ever seen a diving suit from 1921?” Jim Dalmas said. “They look like monster outfits. They could only stay down for 15 minutes at a time, and they had to have hoses that went down with them. It was quite cumbersome. Of course, they didn’t have any lighting or any of the modern equipment. So those guys spent several days, I think five or six days, at the lake trying to find his body and never did.” Jim Dalmas said the divers expected to recover the body at the time, but the plans hit an invisible snag. Dalmas attributed the problems to tendencies of Mountain Lake. “That lake drains and fills back up periodically,” Jim said. “Apparently trees and all kinds of things actually grow in the dried-out lakebed and then the water fills back up. So I guess he just got entangled with something that kept him from floating to the surface.” The remains were found in a part of the lake that is currently dry.
INEVITABLE CONFIRMATION Assuming that his family would like to know of the finding, the Dalmas brothers and Giles County police have been searching for the family of Samuel Felder. “We have put together a tree for Felder, but it’s not done,” Jim Dalmas said. “We’re still trying to accumulate information. What we know so far is that he did have brothers and sisters. He did not have children, so there are no descendants of Samuel Felder to find.” That is not, however, the end of the search for the Dalmas brothers. “We’re still trying to track down two of his male siblings that may have had children. We know where they resided, when they died and so forth, but so far all the children we’ve found have been stepchildren,” Jim Dalmas said. Giles County police have not officially identified the body.
KELSEY HEITER
ct news staff writer The Virginia Tech Dairy Judging Team took the top prize at the Intercollegiate Dairy Cattle Judging Contest in Madison, Wisc, in the 88th World Dairy Exposition. “The students came back before school started and left for a three-day trip to Maryland to practice judging at dairy farms,” said Coach Michael Barnes. “Every weekend since school has started, the girls have traveled to a different farm to get in some practice. They have been to the Maryland State Fair, the Eastern States Exposition in Massachusetts, Harrisonburg, Pennsylvania and finally, the World Dairy Expo. Imagine a town full of 68,000 dairy enthusiasts just waiting to set their sights on the newest dairy technology, the best-looking cows, the newest virtual farm tours and the latest in dairy education. All of this and more can be found at the World Dairy Expo held every fall. The World Dairy Expo plays host to companies and researchers from all over the United States who wish to show off their latest innovations in dairy technology — not to mention the national judging competition. In the competition, there is an ideal type of cow. The Dairy Cattle judging team is responsible for evaluating confirmation in the animals and their placings. “There are about 10 to 12 different groups of cattle with four animals in each category. The students only have 15 minutes to place the cows in order,” said Katharine Knowlton, an 11-year coaching veteran. “The students are trying to juggle lots of conflicting criteria that they can use to judge the cows, making it very stressful to come to a decision in 15 minutes or less. At this point, they are not allowed to consult with any other person or use any of their notes to help in their placings.” The team consists of four dairy science majors, senior Katie Albaugh, junior Katie Pike, senior Malorie Rhoderick,
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