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’M e

Morning
116th Year

TUESDAY, MAY 7,1996 - TOWANDA, PA.

50 cents

Colby’s
55 body found
Cloudy

Forecast High

By the way:

BY HARRY F. ROSENTHAL
Associated Press Writer

Sevlter QrapMe / Sean 0. Sellee

It’s big, it’s
bronze and it’s
finished
CALIFORNIA, Pa. (AP) — Alan
Cottrill says he thinks big, lives big
and works big. He proved the latter
with a 40-foot sculpture unveiled
over the weekend at California
University of Pennsylvania.
The artwork, titled “The Ascent of
Humanity,” consists of 15 bronze and
polyester figures ranging from CroMagnon man to a woman astronaut.
The figures appear to be climbing a
network of vines that climb the wall
of a building on the university’s cam­
pus in Washington County.
“It’s a reminder that we are in the
human-development business,” said
Angelo Armenti Jr., the university’s
president.
Cottrill used a blend of bronze
powder and polyester resin since a
solid bronze piece would have been
Ipo heavy and too expensive. The art­
work weighs only about a ton, despite
its size.
Cottrill has worked full-time on
the sculpture for the last two years,
and put in seven-day weeks for the
last five months to finish the piece in
time for the university’s commence­
ment over the weekend.
Now he’s looking ahead to new
challenges.
“Few artists have ever attempted
anything this size,” he said. “But I
can work bigger.”

Taxi etiquette
has new,
approved iist
NEW YORK (AP) — Do forgive
the intrusion, Mr. Cab Driver, but
would you be so kind as to inform us
of your feelings with regard to the
city’s request that you and your
brethren learn to address customers
more politely?
“You riding, or talking?” demanded
one taxi driver, co rner^ at a traffic
light Monday.
Um, talking.
“Then I’m riding,” he replied, and
sped off in search of a paying cusJomer.
So maybe it’s not such a bad thing
that the Taxi and Limousine
Commission is asking New York
City’s cab drivers to learn 50 new, nice
things to say, such as: “Thank you for
hailing me,” “Please let me take your
bags” and “Is there any particular
route you would like today?”
Í' Of course, some New Yorkers,
accustomed to unmitigated rudeness
Jix)m their taxi drivers, are likely to
respond with some phrases of their
own, like “Hey, what are you — a
wiseguy or something?”
Barbara Schechter, the commis­
sion’s director of licensing, said that
New York’s cabbies, despite their rep­
utation, are not intentionally discour­
teous; they just don’t know how to
speak English well.

yeur hiealth

WASHINGTON (AP) - William
E. Colby was a professional spy and
a man of contradictions. He was
denounced as a war criminal over
CIA assassinations in Vietnam. But
he was fired as CIA director after
advocating a retreat from cloak-anddagger operations.
The contradictions followed him
to the end. He was an avid outdoorsman but he died, apparently by
drowning, while canoeing on a
familiar river. He was 76.
Colby’s body was found washed
up Monday on a sandbar of the
Wicomico River not far from his
southern Maryland vacation home,
eight days afier his empty canoe was
found nearby. A state official said
there was no sign of foul play.
Colby was dismissed as CIA
director 20 years ago, after 3Vi years,
by President Ford. Since then, he had
promoted a nuclear freeze and big
cuts in the military budget.
“The Cold War is over, and the
m il i t ^ threat is now far less,” he
said in a 1992 ad. “It’s time to cut our
military budget by 50 percent and to
invest that money in our schools, our
health care and our economy.”
For the past week, while
searchers looked for him in the
Wicomico, near where it empties

VIRGINIA
Rock Point

William Colby’s
body found
AP/Wm. J. Castell

into the Potomac, his widow, Sally
Shelton-Colby, had refused to accept
the assumption that he had drowned.
After she identified the body on
Monday, she thanked the searchers
and said her husband had left the
world a better place.
“There wasn’t much that was left
undone for him,” she said. “He
fought fascism and communism and
lived to see democracy take hold in
the world.”
President Clinton said in a state­
ment, “Through a quarter of a centu­
ry at the CIA, William Colby played
a pivotal role in shaping our nation’s
intelligence community. ... He made
tough decisions when necessary —
and he was always guided by the
core values of the country he loved.”
CIA Director John Deutch said,
“He faced up to severe challenges
with openness and integrity.”
Former President Bush said, “My
friendship for Bill Colby goes back
many years; but it was in 1976, when
I followed him as director of central
intelligence, that I experienced his
thorough professionalism and gained
the utmost respect for his personal
courage.
Colby was perfectly cast as a spy:
colorless, soft-spoken, precise and
thin. He fit this published descrip­
tion: “Mr. Colby never seems to have
a hair or an emotion out of place.”
Even Colby said, in his 1978
memoir, that he was “the traditional
gray man, so inconspicuous that he
can never catch the waiter’s eye in a
restaurant.”
But Colby was fired on Nov. 2,
1975, as head of the CIA after being
accused of talking too much. He was
said to have been too candid in testi­
mony to congressional investigators;
he had long ago aroused the ire of the
agency’s old guard for trying to
channel more effort into the gadiering, evaluation and analysis of infor­
mation and less into covert opera­
tion.
Two months after the firing. Ford
honored Colby with the National
Security Medal, citing his “outstand­
ing contribution in the field of intel­
ligence.”
Colby was bom Jan. 4, 1920, in
St. Paul, Minn., the son of a career
Army officer. He moved from post to
post, eventually graduating from
Princeton University with a Phi Beta
Kappa key in 1940.
He enrolled in Columbia
University Law School but left after
a year to become an army para­
chutist. He answered a call for
French-speaking volunteers and
(See Colby, Page 2)

The first shovelfuls of dirt for the construc­
tion of the new Sayre Veterans Outpatient
Clinic in Athens Township were ceremonious­
ly dug by (left to right): Dr. Robert L. Jones,
network director, VISN No. 4; Reedes Hurt,
director of the Wilkes-Barre Veterans

Administration Medical Clinic; and Dr. John
Wilt, chief medical officer at the Sayre
Outpatient Clinic for the Department of
Veterans Affairs. (Review Photo by Bonnie
West)

A^eiv VA Clinic breaks ground in Sayre
BY BONNIE WEST
Valley Bureau Editor

SAYRE — “This is a happy and
momentous occasion,” said Reedes
Hurt, director of the Wilkes-Barre
Veterans Administration Medical
Clinic at the official ground-breaking
ceremony held Monday on Elmira
Street in Sayre for the construction of
a new veterans clinic.
“The Sayre Outpatient Clinic was
an overnight success and has had 12
years of support and acceptance from
the community at large, but we have
outgrown the Guthrie facility,” he
said.
He told gathered guests and digni­
taries that the new clinic would
“enable us to take care of more veter­
ans,” as well as offer more space for

the addition of more staff in the
future. “That’s the key,” he said.
Leonard Pallis, director of
Veterans Affairs in Wyoming County
for the last 20 years, said the new
facility would be much easier for
many veterans to get to.
“They are 75 years of age now and
getting pains and aches,” he said.
“The new clinic will be able to care
for more veterans when it’s complete.
Right now, Wilkes-Barre (clinic) han­
dles 23 counties.”
In his talk. Dr. John Wilt, chief
medical officer for the Sayre Veterans
Outpatient Clinic, recognized veter­
ans “for work they continue to do to
keep the spirit of the veterans alive —
and put pressure on politicians who
still owe the vets,”
Congressman Joseph McDade,
(See “CUnic, Page 14)

Past and new
history meet
ATHENS TOWNSHIP —
World and local history intertwine
at the very spot where dignitaries
broke ground Monday for the new
Veterans
Administration
Outpatient Clinic to be built on
South Elmira Street in Athens
Township.
Fordham Wood, World War II
Navy veteran and past commander
of the Waverly American Legion
and past commander of Tioga
County, N.Y., stood to one side
watching the official ceremony
intently.
The property on which mayors
(See “History, Page 14)

Towanda supports building project
BY RICK JENNINGS
News Editor

TOWANDA — Towanda Borough
last night pledged its support for a
proposed office building, which
would be constructed on the 700
block of Main Street here.
The Central Bradford County
Economic Development Authority
has proposed to state and federal

authorities the plan of constructing a
building to house government agen­
cies.
The authority would procure loans
to finance the proposed $3.6 million
project. Borough manager Tom
Fairchild explained that the rent col­
lected from the agencies would retire
the authority’s debt and pay for build­
ing maintenance.
Towanda Borough and Wysox,
Towanda and North Towanda town­

ships are members of the authority,
which would be the owner of the
building.
The borough council approved a
resolution amending the use of a
$175,000 state grant for the project.
The funds were previously procured
for a parking structure plan, which
won’t be implemented.
“The $175,00 is really an incen­
tive,” said Fairchild. “The borough
(See “Towanda, Page 14)

Fire forces family from Sayre home
BY BONNIE WEST
Valley Bureau Editor

SAYRE — If it hasn’t been one
thing, it’s been another lately in the
lives of Gerald and Ruth Thompson
and their daughter, Cindy, of Sayre.
An accident they were involved in
on Jan. 19 of this year left Gerald and
Cindy injured and put Ruth in the hos­
pital with a broken collar bone.
“You just wonder what else could
go wrong,” Ruth fretted Monday
afternoon. She was standing with
Gerald and Cindy in front of a neigh­
bor’s house three doors down from
their 307 Chemung St. address.
Just a few houses away smoke bil­
lowed from her home, where Athens

and Sayre firemen, many of them
wearing breathing apparatus, hurried
in and out of her front door with
^uipm ent and across her lawn carry­
ing ladders to set up against the side
of her house.
The Thompsons said they had
been at their residence visiting with
relatives who had stopped by when
they all began smelling smoke. After
discovering where it was coming
from, in a room off their kitchen
where their refrigerator and dryer are
located, they called the fire depart­
ment.
“I don’t know what happened,”
Ruth said. “It seems to have started
around the dryer, which is next to the
refrigerator, but it wasn’t being used
at the time.”

“Good thing we was home,”
Gerald Thompson said quietly while
watching all the activity around him.
“Good thing.”
Firemen found smoke billowing
from the roof’s eaves and fire making
crackling sounds in the walls when
they arrived just minutes after the
Thompsons placed the 1:48 p.m. call.
Fire had worked its way to the
attic of the two-story structure, where
the firemen were forced to smash a
hole through the roof to ventilate the
smoke.
“The house, which was insured,
received extensive fire, smoke and
water damage,” said Assistant Fire
Chief Don Schrader of the Sayre Fire
Department.
He said that the cause of the fire
was undetermined and that the fire
marshal would be arriving Tuesday to
continue the investigation.
The Valley Chapter of the
American Red Cross was also called
in to the scene to help the family.
“Their bedroom was completely
destroyed,” said Linda Shoemaker
ftom the Valley chapter, located in

Waverly. “They are an elderly couple
and their daughter has special needs.”
She said that when she arrived to
see what could be dorre to help the
family, “Ruth kept repeating over and
over that she had lost her Santa Claus
collection. She had been collecting
them her whole life.”
The Red Cross arranged for the
family to spend the night at the

Guthrie Inn, located in Sayre. “We
also gave them vouchers for food,”
Ms. Shoemaker said.
Fire departments responding to
the scene were Sayre and Athens with
Athens Township covering the Valley
in its absence. The Greater Valley
Ambulance service also responded.
Sayre and Athens fire departments
were back in service by 4 p.m.

Help if you can

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To safely reach
Infants’ teeth, par• ents can position the
baby’s head In their
laps, support the
1baby’s head with
’ their hands and then
swipe clean the teeth
liwlth a damp cloth.

I

An Athens Borough fireman leads Gerald Thompson to safe­
ty away from his smoke-engulfed home on Chemung Street in
Sayre on Monday afternoon. (Review Photos by Bonnie West)

SAYRE — Although the
Thompson family’s home was
insured, " i t will be some time
before the contents that were
destroyed, like those in their bed­
room, can be replaced,” said Linda
Shoemaker of the Valley Chapter of
the American Red Cross.
She said that financial donations
could be given on the Tliompson
family’s twhalf by contacting the
chapter at their office in the old
Tioga General Hospital on North
Chemung Street in Waverly at
(607) 565-9310.
Anyone with questions about
helping the family can direct them
to the same number.

A fireman smashes out an upper window on the two-story
structure to ventilate the house from smoke accumulation from
the fire.

-

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Pennsylvania Towanda Daily Review, May 07, 1996,Pg. 1, Towanda, Pennsylvania, US

https://newspaperarchive.com/pennsylvania-towanda-daily-review-may-07-1996-p-1/