40 years ago: New Director of Bands arrives at KU

From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for June 18, 1971:

  • Robert Foster, the new director of bands at Kansas University, had arrived in Lawrence two weeks earlier to begin organizing the KU Marching Band for next year. Foster, who had formerly served as associate director of bands at the University of Florida, said that his goals had always pointed to “either a major college band director or a football player. My trumpet playing went better than my football playing.” His next goal was to reach 150 members for the band’s next season, in comparison with 120 last year.
  • Assistant City Manager Dennis Kallsen explained that the city had no extensive insect-control program planned for the summer in spite of the droves of mosquitoes that were enjoying feeding on Lawrence residents during the warm evenings. Kallsen said that the only major control program available was a chemical “fogger,” and that when they had used it in the past, “we got more complaints about the fogger than about the mosquitoes.” The article mentioned DDT as the “most effective chemical to be used in the foggers” but that it was “now on the black list of most environmentalists.” (The use of DDT in the United States was banned one year later after months of EPA hearings.)