Professor, fuel expert
Scheller dies of cancer
By Erin Schulte
Senior Reporter
UNL Professor William A.
Scheller, a world-renowned expert on
ethanol-based fuels, died last Saturday
only a month after he found out he had
cancer. He was 67.
Since 1971, when Scheller coined
the term “gasohol,” the chemical engi
neering professor had been considered
an expert in his field, said his son, Wil
liam Scheller II.
Scheller served as a technical ad
viser to the Agricultural Products In
dustrial Utilization Committee of the
Nebraska Legislature in the ’70s. The
committee is now the ethanol board.
He also designed and conducted
Nebraska’s 2 million mile road test of
gasohol, which laid the groundwork for
worldwide studies of alcohol and oxy
genated fuels.
“It really has had a worldwide im
pact,” the younger Scheller said.
Luckily for students, Scheller
brought all his real-world experience
back to the classroom.
“He brought a lot of things into this
department, including all of his expe
rience working with the industry,” the
younger Scheller said.
Those who knew him said he gave
a lot of himself to his students. No
matter how many phone calls he had
to take during the day, and no matter
how much time he devoted to his du
ties as interim chairman of the chemi
cal engineering department, he always
had time for students.
Ali Sezer, a master’s candidate at
UNL who worked for the last year as
Seheller’s graduate assistant, said his
interest in students’ lives was not just
about tests and term papers.
Sezer, an international student from
Turkey, said Scheller always was in
terested in Sezer’s culture.
“In our meetings, he would ask me
a lot of questions about daily life, the
beliefs of my people,” he said, “and I
think that was wonderful.
“He was a very international per
son.”
Sezer said his professor even
brought in old maps of central Asia to
show Sezer where Turks originated,
and Sezer said he was amazed to learn
something new about his homeland
from an American.
Scheller admired his student so
much that he asked Sezer to be a pall
bearer at his funeral — as a represen
tative of all his international students,
Sezer said.
Looking over old student projects
his father had assigned, Scheller said
he saw that all of his assignments were
very practical.
Sezer agreed.
„ “He had a deep engineering knowl
edge and a practical way of solving
problems in engineering,” Sezer said.
Scheller, a native of Milwaukee,
received his bachelor’s and doctorate
degrees from Northwestern University
in Evanston, 111.
Zohair Ismail, a doctoral student,
called Scheller a few weeks before his
death, and the professor said he would
be back to the lab soon.
“He was full of hope that he would
come back next semester, but that’s
God’s will, I think,” Ismail said.
His persistence to get back to work
exemplified what his son said about
him: He was the living model of the
Marine Corps motto, semper fidelis, or
“always faithful.”
“If he told you he would do it,” the
younger Scheller said, “he would do
it.”
Scheller is survived by his wife,
Emily; his son; and a daughter,
Katherine.
supporters rally to help
injured UNL cheerleader
BENEFIT from page 1
Jill Johnson, a senior fine arts ma
jor and teammate, said Jensen would
be happy to see her friends gather to
gether to support her.
The warmhearted, festive mood at
the Royal Grove was one she would
like, Johnson said.
“She’d get a kick out of this,” she
said.
Liam Bruno, a freshman Yell Squad
member, said coping with Jensen’s in
jury made the team pull together. The
team’s first performances after the ac
cident were difficult because
everyone’s mind was on Jensen.
Since the accident, Bruno said that
the squad members have completed
successful single backflips—the same
move Jensen was attempting at the time
of her injury. He said it was a simple,
common maneuver.
“I’ve done it so many times it’s hard
to think that something so simple could
turn tragic,” he said.
Even members of the football team
Jensen cheers for showed up at the
event.
Kris Brown, sophomore kicker for
Nebraska, said the team wanted to
show its support because the players
recognized the tragedy of Jensen’s in
jury.
“It’s something to let her know
people are thinking about her, that
people really care.”
JENSEN from page 1
does not need to investigate the inci
dent or mandate any change in Yell
Squad procedures, she said.
The cheerleading program’s safety
practices are usually enough to prevent
serious injuries, Larsen said.
“Those were in place. Those were
working,” she said. “It was an acci
dent.”
Head Athletic Trainer Jerry Weber
said the last time a student-athlete suf
fered a neck injury was in spring of
1993, when football player Willis
Brown suffered a fractured vertebra.
Weber said Willis’s injury, like
Jensen’s, was an accident and that the
university was not to blame. Even with
the safety policies, he said, the acci
dent was not preventable.
Though players and coaches follow
safety practices, they can’t prevent ev
ery injury, Weber said, and student-ath
letes realize the risk of participating in
sports.
The Athletic Department officials
would review those policies if they
determined the university could have
prevented an injury, Weber said.
Larsen said that in Jensen’s case,
the Athletic Department reviewed ac
counts of the incident and determined
no one was at fault.
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