St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 42

APR 1 01994 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH I I EAST ST. LOUISANS gather to remember 25 AN OFF-DUTY CITY POLICEMAN is arrested SUPREME COURT JUSTICE in Pennsylvania is Reviews 2d I II 1 1 tm people they say died because of chemical plant2D after a shot is fired outside a South County bar3D convicted of conspiracy in a drug case 5D obituaries 10, 11, 13D LOUISMI II Ji SECTION SUNDAY. APRIL10, 1994 .1 BILL McCLELLAN ON MY OWN Bob Richards Off Camera Weatherman Had Smooth Image, Rough Personal Life A Costly Effort For A Better Life ILDRED LONG'S vision was never I very good. For as long as she can remember, seeing did not come easily.

In 1971, when she was 39 years old and had two small children both of whom were mildly retarded her vision took a dramatic turn for the worse. It happened suddenly. She was in the backyard, she came into the kitchen and everything went black. It was as'if her A smooth broadcaster and meticulous meteorologist, Richards worked 15-hour days as a weatherman and public figure. He liked Chinese food, Winston cigarettes and his hobby as a ham radio operator.

He also loved to fly the stub-winged little Piper he named Romeo. Richards talked to thousands of schoolchildren; by conservative estimates, he helped raise millions for charity. His sister suffers from a form of muscular dystrophy. He wrote upbeat letters to her weekly. And he called his parents often when heavy snow storms swept through the East Coast.

But Richards' personality had a troubled side. Those who knew him say he was lonely and insecure. They said he craved almost constant attention, going so far as to have women friends call his beeper number while he was on the air so that he'd know they were watching him. At least four women have alleged that Richards promised to marry See RICHARDS, Page 8 By William C. Lhotka and Roy Malone Of the Post-Dispatch Staff Two minutes before his last weather forecast, Bob Richards called Guy Phillips.

Richards was desperate for news about his wife, Kathleen, who'd gone to Chicago amid public reports that Richards had had an affair with another He'd asked Phillips, an old friend, to call her. Moments before he faced the cameras at KSDK (Channel 5) on that evening, March 22, Richards got the good word. "I told him Kathy was fine," Phillips said. Phillips, a broadcast partner with Richards at Y98-FM, knew that Richards was in the middle of a media storm ever since another radio station had played embarrassing tape recordings about the affair. Phillips assured Richards that storms do blow over.

He suggested that Bob needed help perhaps counseling. "Thanks a. lot, I appreciate it," Richards told Phillips. "You're the i-j Tour women allege Bob Richards promised to marry them, saying he was either divorced or getting a divorce. best.

I can't thank you enough. I'll talk to you in the morning." Morning never came for Bob Richards. His red Piper Cherokee 180 crashed on a runway at Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield, killing him instantly. The death of Richards, 38, stunned friends, family members, the entire community.

It also left a residue of mystery about one of the area's most popular television celebrities. A Troubled Side Bob Richards his real name was Robert Schwartz was a complex personality whose private troubles had exploded in public in recent weeks. eyes couldn handle the change in light. She went to a doctor and learned she had a degenerative disease. Her only hope was a corneal transplant.

She had one, and it didn't work. She had a second cor- -A i neal transplant in 1974, Muscular Dystrophy Association photo KSDK's Bob Richards at last Labor Day's Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon. Over a decade he helped to raise more than $10 million for charity and spoke to thousands of if 1 L-J. If, 7 Fair Entrant's Father Goes The Extra Mile Projects Of Budding Scientists Will Go On Display This Week rwapt By Patricia Corrigan 01 the Post-Dispatch Staff Tom Chamberlain has suffered a severe sunburn all 11 1 KM 1 in the name of science. Chamberlain's daughter, Sarah, needed an assistant for her science fair project on evaluating sunscreen lotions, and Chamberlain stepped into a tanning booth three times to test the lotions.

Sarah, 12, tallied her findings and concluded her report: "The experiment was discontinued after the third exposure, due to a severe burn." Sarah's project will be entered in the 47th annual Greater St. Louis Science Fair, with setup beginning I aT 7 WmmoHM JPPfc. 46th Annual Greater St. Louis Science Fair niiTr fcwi imm li i mil i Odell Mitchell Jr. Morgan Bailey of Minneapolis tries to get a kite aloft Saturday at the Great St.

Louis Kite Festival in Forest Park. Kites: Happiness On A String i5 Monday and viewing beginning Wednesday. The fair runs through April 19 at the Greensfelder Recreation Center at Queeny Park, 550 Weidman Road in west St. Louis County. Sarah lives in Arnold.

She is in seventh grade at Ridgewood Junior High School. "The Evaluation of Sunscreen Lotions" is her first project for the fair. She said she had been talking to her father one day about SPF (Sun Protection Factors) "and I thought maybe I should do a project on it. I did a lot of research on the chemicals in the lotions, and also on the different chemicals in our skin that help protect us against ultraviolet Sponsored by ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH ISonsanto St.

Louis County Parte jf an( tnat didn't work either. Mildred resigned herself to life with a disability, but not to a life of inactivity. In 1987, she enrolled in a course to become a doctor's assistant. The school had her fill out an application for a government loan. She did.

Mildred, who is legally but not completely blind, could not see the blackboard, but she was convinced she could compensate. She used a tape recorder to record the lectures. For about six weeks, she struggled with the program. "The instructor told me I couldn't handle it, and I went to see my doctor and he told me it was impossible," she said. So, six weeks into the six-month program, she dropped out.

Incidentally, it's hard to be angry at the school for enrolling a person who couldn't see the blackboard. Why not give a person a chance? Besides, had the school discriminated against Mildred on the basis of her disability, the school would have been asking for trouble. On the other hand, maybe the school should have taken steps to cancel the loan. But it didn't, and Mildred's loan remained outstanding. Mildred's life was very complicated in 1987, and she didn't give much thought to the loan.

She was in the process of getting a divorce. She and her two children were getting ready to start a new life. She got the divorce, and with it, the family home. When Mildred began to get dunning letters from the U.S. Department of Education, she wasn't sure what to do.

The government threatened to intercept her tax return. The government threatened to garnishee her wages. The situation seemed odd. Mildred's income came from the government. That is, she was receiving Social Security disability.

So there were no tax returns to intercept, and a counselor at the Social Security office assured Mildred that her disability check was exempt from garnishment. And that's where the matter stood for a long time. On one side was the government, dutifully sending Mildred a check every month, and sending both of her kids a disability check each month, as well. On the other side was the same government, sending her dunning letters. Giving with one hand, threatening to take away with the other.

In the eye of this hurricane was Mildred, who sjmply threw the letters away. Earlier this year, Mildred decided to sell her house and buy a new home. She would use the equity in her old house for her down payment. Debbie Haas, of Century 21 Classic, was the real estate agent who found Mildred a new home. But the lender balked when Mildred's credit report turned up a $3,900 debt.

Haas was outraged when she learned that Mildred owed this money simply because she had tried to overcome a disability and become self-supporting. Isn't this what America is supposed to be about? Haas contacted an attorney friend, Margaret Gangle, who promised to look into the matter. "My main idea was to see if we could get the government to go after the school instead of Mildred. But I didn't really learn a heck of a lot," said Gangle. Of course not.

With government loans, nobody is ever in charge. Although Gangle was never quite able to figure out who had the ultimate authority to do anything, somebody in the government eventually agreed to settle for $2,608. "I have no idea how they arrived at that figure," said Gangle. Fortunately, there was enough profit from her old house to cover that figure, and Mildred closed on her new home last month. I visited Mildred the other day.

We sat in her new kitchen. She's 62 now, and her hair is silver. Her two adult children still live with her. Their three disability checks total a little under $1,200 a month. Mildred said she still regrets that she was unable to complete the course, but she said she's happy she tried.

She said she'd rather work than get a government check. What does she think about losing so much money because she tried to do the right thing? "It's not really fair," she said, but she didn't say it in a angry way. Instead, she sounded resigned, like a person who realized long ago that fairness is a concept not necessarily grounded in reality. "delta kite," said Rob Lambert, president of the St. Louis Kite Club and an organizer of the kite festival.

Lambert said a novice kite flier should start with a delta. A delta requires less wind. Its triangular shape affords stability. It derives its design from the aircraft industry. The Coca-Cola Company provided festival-goers with 10,000 red delta kites, available for a donation of 25 cents each.

The recipients included 81 youngsters from East St. Louis. They flew the kites for about an hour before boarding buses to wait out late-morning rain. Robert Young, 43, watched Deshaun Reeves, 14, fly a blue and yellow kite. See KITES, Page 5 By Carolyn Bower Ol the Post-Dispatch Staff Prescription for post-winter blahs: Clutch a kite by its belly.

Hold it up. Start running. Let the string out. Smile. That advice comes from 7-year-old Ayinde Scott.

He was among thousands of people who visited Central Field at Forest Park on Saturday for the Great St. Louis Kite Festival. They came from 23 states and area communities such as Kirkwood and East St. Louis. They came to fly kites, spend time with relatives and help raise money to benefit Forest Park Forever and the Mathews-Dickey Boys' Club.

Most were amateurs. Linda Eissenberg, 38, brought along her 5-year-old daughter, Rebecca. "We tiers helped raise money to benefit Forest Park Forever and the Mathews-Dickey Boys' Club. came last year and had such a good time that we wanted to return," said Eissenberg, a microbiologist at Washington University. As Eissenberg untangled string, she described their kite as the good kind to get up.

The proper name for Eissenberg's kite and for most at the festival is a Woman Holds To Hope Of Transplant damage. She enlisted her father's help, asking him to wear a different lotion on each shoulder and to leave his back unprotected while on a tanning bed. One shoulder tanned; the other did not tan but didn't burn, either. Chamberlain's back turned bright red. "At that point, I stopped the experiment," Sarah said.

"I didn't want to risk skin damage." Chamberlain, a chemical engineer whose sunburn has healed nicely, laughed and said, "Well, hey it was all for science." Melba "Jimi" James, science coordinator for the Parkway School District, has directed the science fair since 1976. She has worked on the fair since 1957 and says she hopes to continue, though she may retire from her job at Parkway next year. "The science fair is always a very interesting challenge," James said. "We live in a universe that is a mysterious, miraculous, wondrous place. The purpose of science is to get us in touch with that universe." More than 3,600 exhibits have been entered in the elementary and secondary fairs, and 50 more in the honors category.

That makes the fair the largest regional science fair in the world. Among the other projects are a study on mass transportation, an experiment to see if ants prefer regular soda to diet soda and a look at thermal insulation. One pupil has studied the effect of temperature on corrosion rates. Another has constructed wishbones of "birds we eat." Honors projects include such topics as the effects of monosodium glutamate on E. coli bacteria, a genetic basis for diabetes, callus and shoot development of red clover and the shelf life of cultured-acidified buttermilk versus conventional cultured buttermilk.

"Interest is way up," James said. She lays the increased interest to a renewed emphasis on performance assessment in schools, in the shift toward "do, rather than memorize." In keeping with that, the St. Louis Science Center will conduct free 30-minute science demonstrations throughout the fair. The fair is sponsored by Monsanto Fund, St. Louis Community College at Forest Park and the Post-Dispatch.

The St. Louis County Department of Parks and Recreation provides free space at Queeny. The fair is open to the students who participated and won in school fairs at public, private and parochial schools in St. Louis, St. Louis County and Jefferson County.

The exhibit categories include behavioral and social See FAIR, Page 5 if She Is Leading Campaign To Recruit Black Donors By Roger Signor Post-Dispatch Science-Medicine Editor Just before sunrise each day, Cheryl Nelson of St. Louis repeats a delicate ritual of taking medicines. Her potent drugs keep her blood disease, called aplastic anemia, from killing her. As a result, she has fine-tuned her nursing skills to do it right. Taking a deep breath, Nelson, 29, injects one medicine into a leg muscle.

She rests a bit. Then she injects a second drug into an abdominal muscle. That chore out of the way, Nelson easily swallows a big capsule. Then, she drinks a bitter medicine and makes a face. The drugs have given Nelson side-effects, including fatigue and joint pain.

"But I'm happy that I'm still alive," Nelson says. For the medicines work. If they fail, her best hope will be a bone-marrow transplant, she said. As a black woman, she knows that she will have a harder time than whites in finding a suitable tissue match. Patients are more likely to See DONORS, Page 3 X.

Odell Mitchell Jr.Post-Dispatch Cheryl Nelson helps her children, Brittani, 5, and Brandon, 8, with their homework. Nelson, 29, recently found she has a fatal blood disorder called aplastic anemia. She may need a bone marrow transplant..