Reza “Ray” Marefat, age 80, of Hays, Kansas passed away on Sunday August 18, 2019 in Hays. Ray was born on August 30, 1938 in Saveh, Iran.
Ray came to the United States in 1960 for work and school. He attended Highland Community College in Coffeyville and Pittsburg, KS. He graduated with a BS in Math from FHSU in 1969, then continued on to the University of Oklahoma for a BS in Chemical Engineering followed by a Master’s Degree in Petroleum Engineering from Ohio State – Columbus.
He returned to Iran in 1973 to work for the National Oil Company of Iran until the revolution of 1979. Upon returning to the United States in 1986 he opened Maxim’s Restaurant in Hays until his retirement in 1996.
Ray’s commitment to education was passed along to his children. His daughter is a RN graduate of FHSU, and now on staff at UCSF Medical Center. His son also graduated from FHSU and is a KU Medical Graduate practicing Ophthalmology in Topeka, KS.
Ray is survived by his wife, Mary Marefat; Son, Babak Marefat; Daughter, Simin Marefat (married to Kreg Rotthoff); and a Grandson, Kai Rotthoff.
Memorial Services for Ray will be Saturday September 28, 2019 from 3 to 6 PM in the 1St floor conference room of the Hadley Center, 205 East 7th Street Hays, KS 67601.
Cremation entrusted to Brock’s-Keithley Funeral Chapel and Crematory 2509 Vine Hays, KS 67601. Condolences may be left online at www.keithleyfuneralchapels.com or by email at [email protected]
The 2019 dove season opens on Sept. 1 and there is no better time to introduce youth to hunting. Aside from a proper-fitting shotgun, a good supply of shotgun shells, and a mentor, special equipment isn’t needed. Better yet, you won’t have to battle the bitter winter temperatures that are sure to come with later hunting seasons.
Several organizations, including Pheasants Forever, Westar Energy’s Green Team, and the Quail and Upland Wildlife Federation, take advantage of this mild season by hosting youth hunts on opening weekend. These special events are safe, fun and free, and more often than not, they’re hosted on lands rife with opportunity. Find a hunt near you, and pass on the joys of wingshooting this fall.
OSBORNE COUNTY PHEASANTS FOREVER HUNT, Sept. 1-2
The Osborne County Pheasants Forever (PF) chapter, in partnership with the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism (KDWPT), invites youth ages 10-16 to participate in an opening weekend dove hunt on Sept. 1 or 2, 2019. This hunt is expected to provide kids with plenty of shooting action as the birds flock to grain fields for morning feeding and ponds for evening water.
Participants should have limited previous dove hunting experience, and those who have not hunted before will be given preference. Only youth may hunt, and they must be strong enough to handle their shotgun safely. Participants will have at least one adult mentor at their side to assist them, so parents can rest easy knowing their child will have guidance.
Hunts will either take place the evening of Sunday, Sept. 1 at local private ponds or early morning on Monday, Sept. 2 on a Glen Elder Wildlife Area managed crop field. Participants will be notified several days in advance as to where and when their hunt will take place. After the hunt, participants can enjoy a free meal courtesy of the Osborne County PF chapter.
Shotguns can be provided upon request, and 12 and 20 gauge shotgun shells will be provided for all hunters. Hunters age 16 will be required to have a hunting license and Harvest Information Stamp (HIP) stamp prior to participating.
Parents must pre-register their child by calling the Glen Elder Area Office at (785) 545-3345 (8 a.m. – 4 p.m. weekdays). Deadline to register is Wednesday, August 28. Spots are limited, so families are encouraged to register early.
For more on this event, contact Chris Lecuyer (KDWPT) at (785) 545-3345 or John Cockerham (PF) at (785) 346-6527.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Billionaire industrialist David H. Koch, who with his older brother, Charles, transformed American politics by pouring their riches into conservative causes, has died at age 79.
David Koch in 2015 during his announced $150M gift for a new cancer center image courtesy Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Charles Koch announced the death on Friday, saying, “It is with a heavy heart that I now must inform you of David’s death.”
David Koch, who lived in New York City, was the Libertarian Party’s vice presidential candidate in 1980. He was a generous donor to conservative political causes as well as educational, medical and cultural groups.
The Koch brothers were best known for a vast political network they built that became popularly known as the “Kochtopus” for its far-reaching tentacles in support of conservative causes. The brothers founded the anti-tax, small government group Americans for Prosperity.
“I was taught from a young age that involvement in the public discourse is a civic duty,” David Koch wrote in a 2012 op-ed in the New York Post. “Each of us has a right— indeed, a responsibility, at times — to make his or her views known to the larger community in order to better form it as a whole. While we may not always get what we want, the exchange of ideas betters the nation in the process.”
After battling prostate cancer for 20 years, he told a reporter following the 2012 Republican convention that he was thinking about what he will someday leave behind.
“I like to engage where my part makes a difference,” he told The Weekly Standard. “I have a point of view. When I pass on, I want people to say he did a lot of good things, he made a real difference, he saved a lot of lives in cancer research.”
David Koch donated $100 million in 2007 to create the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also gave millions to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, the M.D. Anderson Cancer in Houston, and other institutions.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History named in his honor a wing dedicated to the story of human evolution over 6 million years. David Koch donated $15 million to fund the 15,000 square-foot hall.
“The program has the power to influence the way we view our identity as humans, not only today, but for generations to come,” he said in a statement at the time.
David Koch, an engineer trained at MIT, joined Koch Industries in 1970, and served on its board. He also served as chief executive officer of Koch Chemical Technology Group, LLC, a Koch subsidiary. He retired from the company in 2018
Charles and David Koch, each with an estimated net worth of $50.5 billion, tied in fourth place in 2012 on Forbes 500 list of the nation’s richest men.
Two of the Koch brothers, Frederick and Bill Koch, sued the other two, claiming in a 1998 trial that they were cheated out of more than $1 billion when they sold their stake in Koch Industries back in 1983. David and Bill Koch are twins.
The dispute stemmed from a falling out three years earlier when Bill Koch criticized Charles’ management of the company, and with Frederick’s support, tried to gain control of the company’s board of directors. After the takeover move failed, the board fired Bill as an executive. Bill and Frederick Koch and other dissident stockholders sold their interests, and the brothers later sued claiming the company withheld crucial information that would have led to a higher sale price.
Bill and Frederick lost their case, but the lengthy public trial offered a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse at the Koch family.
The Kochs’ father, Fred Koch, guessed early — before two of his boys were out of diapers and before two were even born — that wealth might split his family apart.
“It will be yours to do with what you will,” the father wrote in a 1936 letter to his two oldest sons. “It may be either a blessing or a curse.”
David Koch and his wife, Julia Flesher, have three children.
Sandra Lynn Hartman, age 53, died at her home in Utica, Kansas on August 18, 2019. She was born on June 18, 1966 in Ransom, Kansas the daughter of Norman and Areta (Ummel) Hartman.
Inurnment in the Ransom will be held at a later date.
Merle Nadine “Honey” Cozad, 102, passed away on August 21, 2019.
There will be a visitation Friday, August 23, 2019 from 6-8pm at Langsford Funeral Home in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. Another visitation will take place Sunday, August 25, 2019 at Enfield Funeral Home in Norton, Kansas from 5-7pm. Burial will be in Lyle Cemetery on Monday, August 26, 2019 at 10:30am. Contributions may be made in Merle’s memory to Great Lakes Caring Hospice.
Merle Nadine “Honey” Cozad, daughter of Elmer and Helen Knutson, was born on January 13, 1917, in Wilsonville, Nebraska, where she graduated from high school. Merle married A. Rex Cozad on October 10, 1935, and they had four children, Beverly Jean, John Elwyn, David Charles, and Mary Lynn.
Merle was active in the Lyle community where they raised their family. She participated in community activities and was an active member of the Lyle Methodist Church and the local 4-H club. They left Norcatur, Kansas, to Hutchinson, Kansas, where they spent many years traveling, Friday night dancing, and the social life that came with Rex’s political career.
Merle was a very loving and exceptionally strong woman who had a passion for life and her family. There was never a family event that Merle and Rex missed whether it be marriages, graduations, soccer, baseball or football games. Merle was a true matriarch in every sense of the meaning. She showed her family how to love and to be strong. She was our leader, our strength, and our family glue.
Merle was preceded in death by her parents, Elmer and Helen Knutson; brother, Meredith Knutson; husband of 68 years, Rex Cozad; three of her children, Beverly Morton, John Cozad and David Cozad; and one great-grandson, Shawn Petty.
Survivors include: her daughter, Mary Vanderburg, and husband, Bill; daughter-in-law, Karen Cozad; 15 grandchildren, Tony, Jana, Lynn, Kenny, Sherri, Laura, Tracy, Jon, Jeremy, Kim, Kari, Erin, Nikki, Dusty and Morgan; 28 great-grandchildren; and 15 great-great-grandchildren.
Marjorie L. (Debes) Ludwig, 83, died August 22, 2019, at her home in Hoisington. She was born July 19, 1936, the daughter of Joseph N. and Mary E. (Linsner) Debes. Marjorie graduated from Hoisington High School in 1954.
A longtime Hoisington resident, she was a homemaker, loving wife, mother, and grandmother. Marjorie was a member of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church and Altar Society.
On August 2, 1954, she married Robert G. Ludwig at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, Hoisington.
She is survived by her husband of 65 years, Robert G. Ludwig and their children; Susan Davis and husband Keith of New Cambria, Loretta Riedl and husband Bert of Great Bend, Mary Kaiser and husband Kent of Bushton, Robin Nicholson and husband Brian of Windsor, Colorado, and Dennis Ludwig of Olmitz and special friend Christine Allen; daughters-in-law, Veronica Ludwig of Olmitz and Jeri Ludwig Henderson and husband Bob of Cleveland, Oklahoma; siblings, Pat Radke of Hoisington, Bernice Capps and husband Ron of Newton, Mary Ann Thornburg and husband Alan of Rapid City, South Dakota, Virginia Foos of Greeley, Colorado, LeRoy Debes and wife Connie of Spokane, Washington, and Joe Debes and wife Renita of Loveland, Colorado; 19 grandchildren, and 21 great grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her parents; sons, George C. Ludwig and Robert J. “Bobby” Ludwig, and an infant son, Patrick Ludwig; sister, Joan Vink and husband Larry; brothers-in-law, Bill Radke and Harold Foos; and a grandson, Kevin Anthony Kaiser.
Friends may call 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday, with family to receive friends from 6-8 p.m. Vigil with Rosary will begin at 7 p.m., all at the funeral home.
Mass of Christian Burial will be 10:30 a.m., Monday, August 26, 2019, at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, celebrated by Father Louis Hoang. Burial will follow in St. John Church Cemetery, Hoisington.
Memorials may be made to St. John Cemetery Fund or Kans for Kids in care of Nicholson-Ricke Funeral Home, PO Box 146, Hoisington, KS 67544.
The Rooks County Healthcare Foundation is hosting a charity golf tournament on Sept. 14 to help raise funds for the new Rehabilitation Center being built on to the north side of Rooks County Health Center.
Fairways For The Future is a three-person scramble that will be at the Rooks County Golf Course 5 miles north of Plainville.
The day will include an 18-hole tournament, lunch, whole-hog roast dinner, live music and silent auction. Cash prizes will be awarded, plus golfers can enter for a chance to snag $50,000 in the Hole in One Contest.
Solutions North Bank in Stockton is sponsoring the Hole-in-One contest and Palco4-H student Jamie Keller is donating a market-weight hog that won a blue ribbon at the Rooks County Free Fair.
Registration fees are $225 for a team of three, which covers green fees, sack lunch, supper and entertainment.
For those who don’t play golf but want to join the party, a whole-hog roast dinner and music by local band Gypsy Road will be after the tournament. Tickets are available for $25 per person for those who wish to join in on the fun later in the day. Tickets for the after-tournament event can be purchased at Carmichael True Value and Ruder Oil in Plainville and Solutions North Bank in Stockton.
The day’s schedule on Saturday, Sept. 14 is
8 a.m.: Registration
9 a.m.: Shotgun Start
4 p.m.: Prizes awarded and doors open for dinner and music attendees.
5 p.m.: Whole-hog roast, silent auction and live music by Gypsy Road.
Golfers can register before Aug. 31 for an early-registration discount. Online registration is available at www.fairways4thefuture.com or by calling Eric Sumearll at 785-688-4428.
Laurinda Miller, age 89, of Hays, Kansas passed away Thursday, August 22, 2019 at Via Christi Village, Hays.
Funeral services will be 10 AM Monday, August 26, 2019 at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Hays. Burial will follow in the St. Joseph’s Cemetery, Hays.
Visitation will be Sunday 5 PM – 8 PM and Monday 9 AM – 9:30 AM all at Brock’s-Keithley Funeral Chapel and Crematory 2509 Vine Hays, KS 67601.
A combine rosary and parish vigil service will be 7 PM Sunday at the funeral chapel.
Condolences may be left by guest book at www.keithleyfuneralchapels.com or by email at [email protected]
SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas woman on felony charges after a drug investigation.
Luker photo Shawnee Co.
The Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU) for the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Department followed up on information regarding a non-school aged juvenile boy who was being exposed to unsafe living conditions that include a drug environment, according Sgt. Todd Stallbaumer.
The DEU served a search warrant on the mother’s residence located in the 1100 block of SW Lincoln in Topeka. They located narcotics and paraphernalia that would be in reach of the child. Members of DEU located the child and placed him into Police Protective Custody.
Police arrested the boy’s mother 26-year-old Montanna L. Luker of Topeka and booked her into the Shawnee County Jail on felony narcotic charges.
Fort Hays State University and the FHSU Foundation announced today that their five-year capital campaign has raised $88 million toward its $100 million goal to support scholarships, academics, student life and athletics.
Student Government Association President Brad DeMers, a junior political science major from Osceola, Neb., was on hand to testify to the benefit of the scholarship pillar of the campaign.
“FHSU offered me a scholarship, and that was the deciding factor for me,” he said. “I am honored to be up here today speaking on behalf of all FHSU students on the magnitude of our Journey campaign.”
Brad DeMers
“Today is a big day and I want to thank all of the generous donors and the Fort Hays State Foundation for making the Journey campaign possible. To announce that the campaign is ahead of schedule just proves the dedication our friends, family, alumni and supporters have to this great institution. It’s like no other place,” said DeMers.
DeMers shares the story of his journey to FHSU, and why he ultimately chose to become a Tiger, in this video available on Youtube: https://bit.ly/30s6P1z.
“The Journey campaign is the largest, most aggressive campaign in school history,” said Jason Williby, president and CEO of the FHSU Foundation, at a news conference in the university’s Memorial Union to announce the progress of the campaign.
“We kicked off the campaign in the fall of 2016 with a goal of raising $100 million in support of scholarships, academics, student life and athletics. We are grateful and humbled to have already raised $88 million toward this effort.”
The campaign’s status was announced by alumnus Steve Shields, entrepreneur, Journey campaign co-chair and a trustee of the FHSU Foundation.
“I get the good job,” he said. “I get to announce how well we’re doing. I’m really pleased to announce that we’re not only on schedule, we’re ahead of schedule. As of June 30, we have raised $88 million.”
Shields also shared the story of his goddaughter Lydia, who is a freshman this year on a track scholarship. He said he did not influence her in any way, but asked her why she chose FHSU.
“And she said well, she got a track scholarship,” said Shields. “And that was good. That helped. But then she said, ‘You know, the coaches were so personal, so interested in me and they’re interested in more than just how I do in track. I could feel they were interested in being who I wanted to be.”
She also told Shields that the campus is so beautiful, “and it’s growing.” Then, Shields said, she told him, “So if there’s growth with the university, there’s going to be growth opportunities for me.”
That is also why, Shields said, that he is a member of FHSU’s Wooster Society, whose members have arranged planned gifts, including estate gifts, to the FHSU Foundation.
“Eighty-eight down, 12 to go,” he said. “This is a great university to invest in, and a great university to remember in your estate plans. Fort Hays State University is generously remembered in my estate plans, and I invite you to join me in including FHSU in yours.”
FHSU President Tisa Mason concluded the news conference by thanking the many donors who have contributed to the Journey campaign.
“I am proud to share that our donors have made the dream of a college education an affordable reality for more of our students,” she said. “To date, your participation in the Journey Campaign allowed us to offer more than $13.8 million in student scholarships.”
“You have probably heard me or Jason say many times, ‘All gifts, large and small matter,’ and I am elated to report that of the 58,000 total campaign gifts we have received to date, nearly 22,000 – more than a third – are gifts under $100. Every gift matters.”
For more information on the Journey campaign and the FHSU Foundation, visit https://foundation.fhsu.edu/journey or contact the Fort Hays State Foundation by phone at 785-628-5620 or via email to [email protected].
The Fort Hays State football team wrapped up their second week of preseason camp with their second of two scheduled scrimmages Thursday afternoon at Lewis Field.
Head coach Chris Brown visited with the media afterwards and said he was pleased with both sides of the ball.
The Tigers open the 2019 season in less than two weeks (September 5th) at Central Missouri.
Reza “Ray” Marefat, age 80, of Hays, Kansas passed away on Sunday August 18, 2019 in Hays. Ray was born on August 30, 1938 in Saveh, Iran.
The Fort Hays State football team wrapped up their second week of preseason camp with their second of two scheduled scrimmages Thursday afternoon at Lewis Field.