Newspaper editor to assume chair at KU

Peggy Kuhr, managing editor for content at The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash., will assume the Knight chair in journalism at Kansas University.

Kuhr will leave the Spokane newspaper in mid-June for her new job at the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications.

“The Spokesman-Review is a great newspaper and has given me the opportunity to work with and lead one of the most talented and creative newsrooms in the nation,” Kuhr said Monday in a statement.

“I’ll miss my colleagues at the paper and throughout the Northwest, but I look forward to joining the faculty in Kansas, working with the next generation of journalists and exploring the directions media will take in the coming years.”

Kuhr is a graduate of the University of Montana and held posts with the Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune and Hartford (Conn.) Courant before joining the Spokane paper in 1986.

As Knight chair, Kuhr will be a tenured full professor and will teach classes, conduct research and perform service in the field of community journalism.

Osage County wreck kills one

A Topeka man died Sunday in a one-car accident on U.S. Highway 75 in Osage County.

The accident occurred at 12:12 a.m. Sunday near mile 132.5 on U.S. Highway 75. Mark C. Schooler, 44, Topeka, was southbound on U.S. Highway 75 in a 1995 GMC sports utility vehicle when he crossed the center line, entered the east ditch and vaulted off a field access road. The vehicle rolled and came to rest in a field. Schooler was pronounced dead at the scene.

Vinland student places 10th in state spelling bee

A Vinland fifth-grader placed 10th at a statewide spelling bee.

Marianne Sansom, a fifth-grader at Vinland Elementary School, competed April 6 against 100 other contestants including 52 eighth-graders, 27 seventh-graders, 16 sixth-graders and five other elementary school students at the competition in Topeka.

Sansom has won the Vinland Elementary School Spelling Bee the past three years and advanced to the Douglas County Spelling Bee.

She is the daughter of Charlie and Marcia Sansom of the Vinland area.