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16 THINGS I’VE DONE
Finance officer counts down to retirement
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY
Biography examines MLK mentor ——
KU professor’s book highlights influence of Benjamin Mays By Andy Hyland ahyland@ljworld.com
Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photo
SUSAN WACHTER, KU ATHLETICS’ CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER, is retiring from the position this year. She oversaw a budget of $4.5 million when she first took over the books at the athletics department in 1980; that budget has grown to $67 million today.
KU Athletics accounts for largest chunk of Susan Wachter’s career By Andy Hyland ahyland@ljworld.com
Editor’s note: This is another in an occasional series of stories by reporter Andy Hyland, asking Kansas University staff to share “16 Things I’ve Done.” This week, we talked with Susan Wachter, the chief financial officer for Kansas Athletics, who plans to retire this year. 1. Grew up enjoying sports in Moberly, Mo., where her father had season tickets to University of Missouri football games and basketball games at Moberly Junior College. She admits that al-
though she’s a “Jayhawk through and through” today, she grew up rooting for that other team to the east. 2. Took physical education classes in junior high from future NBA head coach Cotton Fitzsimmons, who was serving as the head basketball coach at Moberly Junior College. 3. Worked in the food industry growing up for her father, who owned several restaurants. Wachter did a little bit of everything, including waitressing, busing tables, doing dishes and even a small bit of cooking. “If you don’t finish your degree, you’ll always have this to fall back
on,” she remembered her father telling her. “I said, ‘Dad, I’m going to go get my college degree.’” 4. Got that college degree from Pittsburg State University in 1970, in business with a major in accounting. Her mother suggested she take the classes, and she enjoyed them. 5. Got started at KU in the department of internal audit in 1976 before then-Chancellor Archie Dykes asked her to move to athletics on an interim basis in 1980. 6. Worked with more athletic directors than football coaches during her time in athletics, if interims are counted. “Everybody brought their
acouch@ljworld.com
Diana Jurik left home at 12. She was an alcoholic by 14 and a school dropout by 16. By 36 she had been in prison five times and convicted of nine felonies. But age 37 has been different. Jurik is working and staying clean. She is going to school and learning there are people in the world who care about her. “I feel like somebody worth something,” she said, sitting between the two women she credits with much of her success. The women are Dot Fernandez and Cindy Manske, co-founders of Freedom Foundation Ministries. Since last June, they have been holding life-skills classes for women in Topeka Correctional Facility and pairing them
with mentors for when they are released. The group also offers optional religious services. “It’s important for them to have that support from somebody who doesn’t want anything from them,” Fernandez said. After Jurik was released from prison last April, Fernandez helped her get a job at a restaurant and enroll in cosmetology school in Topeka. She has also helped Jurik avoid her old way of life, which included alcohol abuse and bad relationships. She was convicted multiple times for forgery and drug possession. Jurik said she has had one addiction relapse since being released from prison. In the past, that would have been the beginning of a downward spiral that
By Christine Metz cmetz@ljworld.com
Kevin Anderson/Journal-World Photo
DOT FERNANDEZ, LEFT, and Cindy Manske, center, run Freedom Foundation, which mentors female prisoners in Topeka. Diana Jurik, right, is an ex-convict who has gone though their program and continues to be menPlease see FREEDOM, page 2A tored by Manske.
With the green and yellow John Deere logo on everything from clocks to cooking canisters, a quick glance around LaVell Winsor’s kitchen is all it takes to tell she’s a farm wife. From the kitchen to the field, Winsor wants to share what it means to be a farm woman as part of a program geared toward dispelling misconceptions about conventional farming. Winsor is part of a campaign backed by the United Soybean Board and the National Corn Growers Association called CommonGround. The goal is to cultivate conversations between the women who grow food and the women who buy it. “We see that in a grocery store it is usually the women and moms of the family doing the grocery shopping. So what better way to connect with the consum-
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Farm wives stake common ground for food education
Inmate program nurtures freedom on many levels By Aaron Couch
own strengths to it,” she said of the 11 athletic directors she worked with — Bob Marcum, who hired her on a full-time basis, Del Shankel (who served as interim director twice while Wachter was in athletics), Jim Lessig, Monte Johnson, Bob Frederick, Richard Konzem, Al Bohl, Drue Jennings, Lew Perkins, Sean Lester and Sheahon Zenger. 7. Worked long hours at the beginning of her career at Haskins & Sells, the accounting firm that would become Deloitte & Touche. She moved to a smaller firm
A Kansas University scholar will publish a new biography on a man whom civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. called his spiritual mentor. Randal Jelks, associate professor of American studies at KU, has written “Benjamin Elijah Mays: Schoolmaster of the Movement,” which is scheduled for release in April by the University of North Carolina Press. Mays, the child of forJelks mer slaves, met King while Mays was serving as president of Morehouse College in Atlanta. Jelks said King came to the college at age 15, and Mays took him under his wing. “Your knowledge of American history would be impoverished if you didn’t know about someone like Benjamin Mays,” Jelks said. Mays also was a scholar in his own right, publishing nine books, including an autobiography. He met Mohandas Gandhi in India and would become an advocate for nonviolent resistance during the civil rights movement. In addition to King, several other graduates from Morehouse during Mays’ presidency became leaders, including Lerone Bennett, executive editor of Ebony magazine for 40 years; Maynard H. Jackson, the first black mayor of Atlanta; and Herman Cain, the former Republican presidential candidate and former Godfather’s Pizza executive. Jelks said he had been aware of
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We see that in a grocery store it is usually the women and moms of the family doing the grocery shopping. So what better way to connect with the consumer than farm moms, who grow the same food they put on the table?”
— DeEtta Bohling, a communications specialist for the Kansas Corn Commission er than farm moms, who grow the same food they put on the table?” said DeEtta Bohling, a communications specialist for the Kansas Corn Commission. The program originally started with five states and has expanded to 15. Earlier Please see FARM, page 2A
COMING TUESDAY The school board’s consolidation group continues its work. We’ll fill you in on their progress.
Vol.154/No.16 36 pages
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