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The comeback continues Former San Marcos golfer back in action six years after brutal attack
Reparations increased for Holocaust survivors By JOSH GREGA NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
GERRY FALL / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS
Former San Marcos High standout golfer Thayer White will tee off today in the first round of the Santa Barbara City Golf Championship at Muni.
By GERRY FALL NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
As a golfer at San Marcos High, Thayer White was one of the best in the Channel League. He was the backbone of a Royals’ team for four years that enjoyed great success in and out of league play. Almost 10 years later, Mr. White is a scratch golfer today. He will take his game and competitive spirit into this weekend’s Santa Barbara City Golf Championship at Muni. “I’m very excited. I really enjoy competing, and living back in Santa Barbara now, it’s really fun seeing people who I know in the golf community,” he said. Mr. White will help make up one of the tournament’s largest championship-flight fields — one that consists of more than 90 players — when it all gets going today. Not only is Mr. White lucky to be playing in the annual tournament, he’s lucky to be alive. It was six years ago, on April 17, 2014, that he, along with another fraternity brother at Cal, were viciously attacked — hit over the head with a metal baseball bat by a man named Frank Paul Watson, who was later charged with attempted murder. Mr. White, who according to witnesses, fell to the ground like “dead weight,” was left with a traumatic brain injury, one that landed him in the hospital for 10 weeks. He has no memory of the actual event today. “It’s interesting, because that actual event, I don’t have any personal memories, but I feel like I’ve seen it because of talking to so many people about it. I have a picture that I’ve painted in my mind about what happened,” Mr. White said. “I view it as a blessing in disguise that I don’t have a personal memory of it. I actually don’t remember two weeks after the fact at the Intensive Care Unit. I have mixed emotions. I’ve seen the reports. I have close friends who will talk about it occasionally and it gets very emotional. It’s really interesting because I can see a picture of what happened and how it
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Santa Barbara golfer Thayer White has made a complete recovery from a vicious attack six years ago that left him without the ability to speak.
affected me.” Mr. White had to regain his ability to speak, read and write. The injury was that severe. “The nature of my injury affected my cognitive abilities,” he said. “It wasn’t that I had to learn reading and writing and speaking all over again, but all of those abilities were at different levels. My main issue was actually my speech. Reading and writing came back much quicker to me, but speaking, that was by far the most frustrating aspect of my recovery. “I had to work with a speech therapist. I basically had tutors to help me. It was like going back to grade school. You have some ability to read and write in grade school, but
to polish that and try to go back to a college level, that was a challenge. That was probably the biggest challenge I’ve ever had to face.” The incident six years ago occurred at a party Mr. White’s fraternity was hosting. He along with several of his fraternity brothers were attempting to get rid of some unwanted guests, one’s who knew Mr. Watson. When they got outside, Mr. Watson got out of his car with a bat. “It just reminds you of how fragile life can be, but it also reminds you that you’ve got to bounce back,” Mr. White said. “Thankfully, I’ve had a normal life for quite a while now. I just have to attribute a lot of my recovery to my family and friends, who gave me a lot of support. “It’s something that I worked on for a long time. Thankfully, if I meet new people, they would never really know what happened. Occasionally I’ll make a mistake because I’m speaking too quickly or I can’t find the perfect word to describe a situation, but I’ve got to remind myself that the English language is probably the toughest language,” Mr. White added with a chuckle. Amazingly, he never lost his ability to play golf, although it was some time before he would tee it up again. The sport has been a huge part of Mr. White’s phenomenal comeback. “Golf became a very therapeutic aspect of my recovery,” he said. “Thankfully, my motor skills from the injury came back much quicker than my cognitive ability. Just a couple of months after the event, I was able to go play. “Golf is repetitive motion. It’s muscle memory, so golf was a perfect way to get away from this stuff. I go on the golf course with family and friends, it takes you away from a challenging time.” Mr. White will cast himself back into a challenging time this weekend, when he goes up against some of the best players in the state and beyond. email: gfall@newspress.com
Amid the hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic, the German government is expanding its compensation for Holocaust survivors around the world to $653 million. Payments from this sum will be made to survivors over the next two years. Jewish Family Services director Ruth Steinberg, whose work entails connecting Holocaust survivors living in Santa Barbara to local services and reparation payments from the German government, called this expansion “a step in the right direction” toward ensuring survivors are taken care of in their later years. “I think it’s a positive step. I think there’s an awareness that survivors are definitely aging,” Ms. Steinberg stated. In order to get survivors reparations and payments, Ms. Steinberg goes through the New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. Also known as the Claims Conference, the organization funds in-home care for more than 83,000 Holocaust survivors around the world to make their remaining days as pleasant as possible. The Claims Conference announced Wednesday on its website that the German government’s increased compensation and social welfare for Holocaust survivors is approximately $36 million more than last year’s. Under negotiations between the Claims Conference and the German government, victims eligible for the funds will get two supplemental payments of $1,400 over the next two years. According to the Claims Conference website, the payments will become effective as of Dec. 1. Germany’s government has agreed to expand the categories of Holocaust survivors to include
those who lived in “open ghettos” in Bulgaria and Romania. Ms. Steinberg told the News-Press that in her experience, getting Holocaust survivors the benefits that they need can be difficult because different compensations are for specific types of survivors. These include people who were in concentration camps, individuals who were on the run or hiding from the Nazis, or children who were forced to leave Germany on the Kindertransport. Recalling a time when she managed to get a local Holocaust survivor a large sum of money for dental work he needed done, Ms. Steinberg said another difficulty in securing compensations is the vast amount of required paperwork. However, she said the Claims Conference told her that the German government’s expanded benefits will consist of automatic payments to those who qualify for Hardship payments and increased funding for social welfare services that survivors can access through local agencies. Thus, little paperwork will be required. Because many survivors who were adults during the Holocaust have passed away, and those who were children are now in their 80s, Ms. Steinberg stated that now is the perfect time for Germany to expand the survivor categories and increase the reparation payments. “Time is running out for these survivors, so it behooves Germany to be doing this now,” she said. On top of that, elderly Holocaust survivors are in the demographic particularly impacted by COVID-19 restrictions. “Everyone is facing this challenge and when you are an aging Holocaust survivor, isolated in many cases, it makes your situation all the worse,” Ms. Steinberg remarked. email: jgrega@newspress.com
KENNETH SONG / NEWS-PRESS
On Thursday, the six candidates running for Santa Barbara City College Board of Trustees spoke at an online forum for a special edition of Campus Conversations.
SBCC board holds candidate forum By GRAYCE MCCORMICK NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
On Thursday, the six candidates running for Santa Barbara City College Board of Trustees spoke at an online forum for a special edition of Campus Conversations. Competing for the Area 2 spot in Goleta are Robert K. Miller and Ronald J. Liechti. Mr. Liechti, a nearly 30-year resident of the Santa Barbara community, said he would bring a sense of civic duty, servant
leadership and an ability to engage on tough areas to the table for SBCC. “I believe in public education,” he said in his candidate statement. “...I want to make sure public education is there for current and future generations in our beautiful city.” The candidate oversees a $30 million budget for the city of Santa Barbara, manages taxpayer-funded budgets and has helped the city meet all fiduciary Please see SBCC on A8
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