High school students visit for KU Brass Day concert

The Kansas University Brass Day concert will be at 5 p.m. today in Swarthout Recital Hall in Murphy Hall.

About 60 high school students from the Midwest have been selected to participate in the Brass Day. They will work with faculty in several clinics and ensembles. Faculty members include Tim Oliver, Christopher Moore, Paul Stevens, Michael Hall and Scott Watson.

Beginning at 4 p.m., a shuttle will run from the Lied Center to Swarthout Recital Hall. Concert-goers are encouraged to take the shuttle because of basketball traffic for the KU-Colorado game.

The concert is free and open to the public.

Kansan drowns in Mississippi

A Kansas man who was fishing with his son and a friend drowned Thursday in the Mississippi River near Helena, Ark., after their boat swamped.

Richard Lee Fort, 65, of Leavenworth; his son, Richard Ray Fort, 39, also of Kansas, and Charles Mason, 53, of Austin, Tex., were fishing on the river near the Helena Bridge.

The younger Fort said a wind caught their boat and they swamped when a wave came over the rear of the boat.

All three were thrown into the river and held onto the capsized boat. They were wearing lifejackets. A truck driver going over the bridge spotted them and called rescuers, Fort said.

Mason said he last talked with Richard Lee Fort as they floated under the bridge. That was the last communication with the man.

All three were taken to Helena Regional Medical Center, where the elder Fort was pronounced dead on arrival. Mason and Richard Ray Fort were treated for hypothermia.

KU East Asian studies gets grant to expand services

The Kansas University Center for East Asian Studies has received a four-year, $2 million outreach grant.

The grant, from the Freeman Foundation of Stowe, Vt., will fund a series of new programs designed to expand the center’s presence at KU and the region.

Among the programs to begin with the grant:

The formation of the “Freeman Scholars” program, which will help fund student trips to China, Japan and Korea.

Support of an outreach initiative that will educate children in rural Kansas about East Asian issues.

Money for four new faculty positions in East Asian studies. Funds also will be available for course development and research travel for faculty members.

Foundation pledges $1 million to recruit director of center

A Kansas City, Mo.-based foundation has pledged $1 million to help recruit a director for the new Center for Urban Child Health at the Kansas University Medical Center.

The Sosland Foundation gave the money to establish an endowed professorship for the center’s first director. The center will conduct research in public health, offer health promotion and disease prevention programs and help educate KU medical, nursing, allied health and public health students.

Issues to be studied by the center include violence, housing, substance abuse, pollution and public policy. Researchers will work with other Kansas City-area hospitals and educational institutions on their projects.

Founded in 1947, the Sosland Foundation supports a variety of areas including social welfare, education, community health, arts and culture, and the Jewish community.