Zuohuang Chen, from the People’s Republic of China, accepted a one-year appointment as KU’s director of orchestral activities and conductor of the University Symphony Orchestra. He was to replace George Lawner, who had died on May 31. After his year at KU, Chen was planning to return to China to assume the musical directorship of the Beijing Central Philharmonic, the nation’s leading orchestra.

Lawrence city commissioners continued hearing the pros and cons of the bypass proposal. Opponents voiced several concerns, including the possibility that the bypass would hurt 23rd Street merchants. Others asked about the possibility of a eastern bypass instead of a southern one. At the conclusion of the meeting, Mayor Mike Amyx was the only commissioner to vote against spending one-third of the cost for a preliminary engineering study for the new road.

In Emporia, former minister Thomas Bird was convicted by a jury on a charge of first-degree murder in the July 1983 death of his wife. Bird had been accused of murdering his wife and then trying to mask the murder as a car accident. The attorney for the defense had argued that the state’s case against Bird was based on circumstantial evidence full of inconsistencies.