Schools foundation seeks nominees for award

The Lawrence Schools Foundation is seeking nominees for its 2004 Educator of the Year Award.

The $1,000 award, which recognizes special achievement and contributions to students, will be presented during the Foundation Follies, the annual variety show set for April 2 at Liberty Hall.

Nominations may come from any school district employee, parent or student. Forms are available at the Lawrence Schools Foundation Office, 110 McDonald Drive, or by calling 832-5000, ext. 108.

Great Bend

Authorities investigate homicide, kidnapping

Two men were arrested Sunday in the fatal shooting of a Great Bend man, authorities said.

The two, who had not been charged as of Sunday night, were arrested in Lyons, Great Bend Police Chief Dean Akings said.

Akings said information gathered at the crime scene made the two men suspects in the fatal shooting of Darren Wornkey, 24, and the kidnapping of his girlfriend, Mikiala Martinez.

Authorities hope a search warrant executed on the house in Lyons where the suspects were found might generate some leads in finding Martinez, Akings said.

Wornkey was found shot to death in his SUV early Saturday.

Continuing education

Final book discussion on Kansas Territory set

The final online book discussion in the Kansas University Continuing Education series on the Kansas Territory will begin Wednesday.

The final book in the series is “The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton” by Jane Smiley.

Other required books in the series were “The Englishman in Kansas,” by T.H. Gladstone; “John Brown: The Legend Revisited,” by Merrill D. Peterson; and “Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or Life Among the Lowly,” by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

The discussion can be viewed at www.kuce.org/kt. One hour of credit can be earned through KU.

The series, which included other books examining issues and characters that defined Territorial Kansas, also was sponsored by the Kansas Humanities Council, Lawrence Public Library, the Kansas Press Assn., the Lawrence Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Kansas State Historical Society and the Spencer Research Library.

Kansas State University

Former KSU official chosen as provost

A former Kansas State University official will return to Manhattan as provost of the land-grant university, KSU officials announced Friday.

M. Duane Nellis, who spent 17 years at KSU as a geography professor, department chairman, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and director of the Institute for Social and Behavioral Research, will become provost in July. He will succeed James R. Coffman, who has been provost since 1987 and is retiring.

Nellis has been dean of the college of arts and sciences at West Virginia University since 1997.