Weather: Partly sunny today.
High near 90 with winds from the
southeast five to fifteen mph.
Tomorrow evening will be partly
cloudy with a low near 70 and a 20
percent chance of thundershow
ers. Wednesday will be partly cloudy
with a high near 90.
IT
July 8, 1986
II P V Mi U JhU H
By Steve Thomas
Staff Reporter
He probably could flip hamburgers
with the best of them. He could
wash a car or paint a house with his
shirt off. He could even deliver piz
zas to obnoxious collegians at 2 a.m.
But Leonard Wood chose something
a little different.
Wood, an accounting majorat the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is
one of four students that work the
night shift at Roper and Sons Mor
tuary, 4300 0 St.
'It's great to be
able to study on
the job, tobvIts
always going to
be quiet that's
for sure.'
Wood
By Wood's own admission, his job
isn't one commonly sought by the
average student. A quick glance at
the "help wanted" board in the
Nebraska Union confirms Wood's
belief the night shift is nowhere
to be found. A well-kept secret.
At 5:30 p.m. Wood dons a coat and
tie and heads for work. Traffic and
parking aren't problems. He leaves
his room, climbs a flight of stairs,
goes down a hall and he is at work.
The mortuary is Wood's home
year round and it's a big advan
tage, he said.
"Myself and the other students
who work and live here don't pay
any rent," Wood said. "It's great to
be able to study on the job, too, It's
always going to be quiet that's
for sure'
Wood's first four hours of the .
night shift are spent at the main
desk. He said his work involves
answering the phone, showing peo
ple to their deceased family member,
and leaving messages for the fun
eral directors. But don't think it is
all kids' stuff.
"This part of the job isn't real
easy," Wood said. "We often have to
deal with people who are crying and
getting emotional. It can be tough
at times. You really learn how to
deal with people in a hurry."
But not all the people Wood
works with are emotional, crying,
breathing beings they're dead.
It's this part of the job that puts a
look of astonishment on the faces of
those inquiring about his job, Wood
Batman T-shirt shunned
by pastel downtowners
Arts &
V
f
;
s ,
Leonard
said.
"After 9:30, we're on call until
seven in the morning," Wood said. -"That
means having to pick up the
deceased at hospitals and homes.
It's usually not too bad, but some
times a suicide or something can
get pretty ugly."
Just as in any business,-work
comes in spurts without warning.
Wood said the mortuary received
five calls one night to pick up dead
bodies,
"It's usually pretty slow," Wood
said, "Sometimes we'll go a week or
two without having a single call."
The students are always accom
panied by a licensed funeral direc
tor on their nighttime calls, Wood
said.
Wood said he became interested
in the job whenhe heard of an open
ing through a friend.
"I asked myself, 'Am I going to
like dealing with dead people every
day?' " Wood said. "It took a little
while to get used to it, but it's pretty
routine now. It's not something a
person should jump right into,
though."
Wood said his job reaps a variety
of reactions from curious peers.
"Some say, 'You do what?' " Wood
said. "Others are apprehensive about
U y
L2 XJ X3 :...; XWti
ry a job,
Entertainment, Page 7
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University of Nebraska-Lincoln
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Paut VonderlageDaily Nebraskan
Wood
leaving my room in the mortuary,
but there are those that think it's
great, too."
Wood calls the night shift as
being "very educational," but some
thing he does not wish to pursue in
the future.
"It just doesn't appeal to me, but
I think it has caused me to view life
a little differently," Wood said. "You
learn that people can die unexpect
edly all the time. It kind of changes
the way you go about your life."
Wood said dealing with the death
of someone close to him would be
easier now because of his work
experience.
The mortuary is probably not the
place to go for the latest one-liners
and knee-slapping pranks, but Wood
said laughs are not a rare occur
rence at night.
One night, a woman deputy sheriff
added some life to Wood's job. Wood
said he entered the hospital, wheeled
a body out on a cot only to discover
his station wagon was gone. Wood's
panic turned to laughter when he
learned the deputy was the prankster.
Laughs within the mortuary have
their place, too. Wood and his co
workers rented the movie "Night
Shift" and other mortuary films one
night to play the part.
Local research firm aids
teams in player selection
Sports, Page 6
wrr
Petition drive fails
no charges filed
By Colleen Kenney
Senior Reporter
Citizens To Restore the Constitution
failed in its repeal drive to collect
enough signatures to put Initiative 300
on the November ballot. By the deadline
last Thursday, the organization had
collected about 50,000 of the 55,000
valid signatures needed.
"It was a little too late, a little too
short," said North Platte Sen. Jim Pap
pas, backer of the repeal drive. .
Pappas said bad press and "intimida
tion" by Larry Hall, president of the
Nebraska Farmers Union, were among
the reasons the drive failed.
Initiative 300 prohibits non-family
corporations from operating on Nebras
ka farm and ranch land. Initiative 300
was added to the Nebraska constitution
by a 1983 vote.
Hall filed a complaint with the
attorney general in mid-June on behalf
of the Nebraska Farmers Union and
other support groups. He said Citizens
To Restore the Constitution illegally
paid petition circulators, many of whom
were UNL students, to collect the
needed signatures.
Gene Crump, deputy attorney general,
said that if it could be proved the peti
tion circulators were paid salaries and
not reimbursed for only expenses, it
was a violation. No receipts were kept
by the petition circulators.
If the 55,000 signatures had been
collected by Thursday, Hall said the
farmers' groups would have pressed
charges against Citizens To Restore the
Constitution, claiming many of the sig
natures were invalid because they were
NU Foundation president
fired; reason not given
By Colleen Kenney
Senior Reporter
William Wenke, president of the
University of Nebraska Foundation for
the past two years, was fired Wednes
day by the Executive Committee of the
Foundation's board of trustees.
"It was in the best interest of the
Foundation," Warren Johnson, chair
man of the Foundation's board of trus
tees, said in a UNL press release. John
son could not be reached by the Daily
Nebraskan for further comment.
Wenke called the announcement "a
real shocker." He said he was not
informed ahead of the decision and has
not been told yet why he was fired.
This past year was a record for the
Foundation, receiving $30 million in
gifts, almost doubling the amount of
donations collected the year before,
also a record year.
The Foundation's assetsjumped from
$108 million to the present $155 mil
lion during the two years Wenke spent
as Foundation president.
Wenke, 57, graduated from UNL's
College of Law in 1952. He practiced
law in Newport Beach, Calif., for 32
years before returning to Nebraska to
join the Foundation June 1, 1984.
Wenke was in charge of the Founda
tion's entire operation, including ad
Vol. 85 No. 162
collected illegally.
Sen. Pappas said that Hall's group
"got all the good press." Many volun
teers were scared they would be sub
poenaed to appear in court, so they
stopped collecting signatures before
last Thursday, he said.
"The threats by Larry Hall were
really childish," he said. Volunteers
were paid only expenses, he said.
Hall said circulators wouldn't have
been fined for their part in collecting
signatures if the issue had gone to trial.
"If petition circulators were paid
only expenses, they were doing nothing
wrong," Hall said.
Hall said they main reason the repeal
drive failed to collect enough signa
tures was that many people were
"turned off by the fact that petition
circulators were paid for more than
expenses.
A former UNL student who attended
meetings for petition circulators told
the Daily- Nebraskan in June that she
could be paid up to $20 for working one
night. Many of the petition circulators
were UNL students who were told that
how they calculated their expenses
was their "own business," she said.
Groups against the repeal are the
Nebraska Farmers Union, the National
Farmers Organization, Women Involved
in Farm Economics, the American Ag.
Movement, the Grange, Nebraska Pork
Producers, the Center for Rural Affairs,
and other farm support groups includ
ing some churches, said Hall.
Sen. Pappas said Citizens To Restore
the Constitution will "definitely" try
again in two years to repeal Initiative
300.
ministrative functions and fund rdsing.
Wenke said his future is undecided.
"We sold our home (in California) a
month ago," he said. "We thought we
were here permanently."
"As far as my plans go, I don't know,"
he said.
Foundation Executive Vice-President
Edward J. Hirsch will take over as act
ing president until a new president is
named. Hirsch said he did not know
when a new president will be named or
why Wenke was fired from his position.
D.B. Varner will remain chairman of
the Foundation's Board of Directors.
The Foundation announced last week
that their goal of collecting $10 million
for construction and maintenance of
the Lied Center for the Performing Arts
had been reached.
Wenke said he hopes UNL meets
with continued success in the future.
Hirsch said Wenke's firing was decided
at an Executive Committee meeting
June 24. Eleven members of the Foun
dation's Board of Trustees comprise
the Executive Committee.
Thomas Ash, UNL director of publi
cations, was also fired at the June 24
meeting.
The two firings are not related, both
Wenke and Hirsch said. Ash declined
to comment.
