Out of the past: Dec. 11

1998

Dr. Gary Miller of Southeast Missouri State University was one of 62 faculty members from around the state who received the Governor's Award for Excellence in Teaching on Thursday; Miller is a professor of music at Southeast; he was given a 1998 Faculty Merit Award by the university previously this year and will deliver Saturday's commencement address at the Show Me Center.

The Southeast Missouri State University regents' discussion of the River Campus project is private, but its decision is an open book; the board meets briefly behind closed doors and then returns to open session to announce the university would move ahead with plans to make use of a state bonding authority to help finance the $35.6 million River Campus project; bonds would be used to finance a fourth of the cost; motel-hotel and restaurant taxes would be used to retire the bonds; private donations would pick up another fourth of the cost; the state is being asked to pick up the other half or $17.8 million.

1973

Oak Ridge, population 181, has a fire truck, but it may be spring before it's in working condition; the old 750-gallon-per-minute pumper belonging to the City of Cape Girardeau and assigned to the municipal airport has been given to the community of Oak Ridge on a loan agreement; since there is no fire protection in rural Cape Girardeau County, the pumper, once repaired, will be a great asset to the community; the pump on the truck, which was obtained by Cape Girardeau several years ago from an Atomic Energy Commission Plant in Kentucky, is inoperative.

The superior general of the Congregation of the Mission -- the Vincentian Fathers -- sees little prospect that the order can return any time soon to mainland China; the Very Rev. James W. Richardson, who departed from Cape Girardeau yesterday on another leg of his current trip to the United States, made that assessment before leaving; the only possibility that some religious contact may be made, Richardson said, is through businessmen who are allowed on the mainland.

1948

Arthur Job and August Siemers of Gordonville Road, thwarted earlier in the week in their attempt for a deer, came back successful yesterday afternoon following their second try during the five-day deer season, which closed yesterday; Job made the kill, his first in three years; Clarence Brune of Cape Girardeau, hunting with Clyde Primo of Bloomsdale, Missouri, and Marvin Cole of Webster Groves, Missouri, brought home a deer yesterday; each member of the party scored on their trip in Ste. Genevieve County.

Gov.-elect Forrest Smith notifies Robert Kelso Renfrow of Cape Girardeau of his appointment as a colonel on the governor's staff; Renfrow is the son of Col. and Mrs. L.H. Renfrow of Washington, D.C., and Cape Girardeau, his father being an assistant military aide to President Truman.

1923

Cape Girardeau is to have a community Christmas tree this year; the social service committee of the Y.W.C.A. of the State Teachers College is arranging for the event with the cooperation of a local committee; the tree, which will be an unusually large one, will be set up in Courthouse Park and decorated by the Union Electric Co.; a program will be held Sunday, Dec. 23, to which every person in Cape Girardeau will be invited; presents will be given to every child in attendance.

Directors of the Southeast Missouri Agricultural Bureau meet in regular monthly session in Cape Girardeau, with John A. Montgomery, Norman D. Blue, Thad Snow, W.H. Heisserer, E.C. Matthews, C.L. Harrison, Fred Naeter, secretary A.I. Foard and assistant Charles Schweer present; the photographer who filmed scenes of Southeast Missouri development is also there, and his work is shown at the Chamber of Commerce rooms and then at the New Broadway Theatre.

-- Sharon K. Sanders