Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 17

-)yayHtr yn J. yny im Star TribuneTuesdayOctober 191993 L33 33 QcfeffiEistss Doug GrowCJ.Jim Kiobuchar family reunion this 'New Zealander' will never forget 1 Jim Kiobuchar the old sailor said simply. The radical turn in Alvin Hitt't life, compounded by the accident, raised once more a question explored by novelists over the centuries. K. What does a person begin if events suddenly force him or her to adopt an entirely new identity, to create a new life? He became Alvin Schultz, origin unknown.

He remembered the name Alvin sometime between the accident and his discharge. It was so intimate and repetitive that he decided Alvin had 1 to be his first name. He remembered another name, Schultz. Yean later he -discovered why. Schultz was the name of his stepfather.

John Schultz had married his mother in 1932, four years after his father, a lumber-mill worker in Rhinelander, had been crushed i After years of inquiry, his family in Wisconsin assumed that he was dead. A few days ago a man wearing a blue athletic jacket and walking with a slight limp stepped into the terminal at Minneapolis-St Paul International airport, and saw his brother, John, for the first time in 52 years. After nearly a half-century, the darkness had lifted for Alvin Hitt, once known in New Zealand as Alvin Schultz, and once known as the man out of oblivion. With him was his son, Ashley, one of his eight children. Ashley's search brought his father back to the American Midwest he had last seen in 1 944.

John Hitt of East Bethel, a retired Honeywell group leader, recognized his brother quickly. The visitor was a thin man, 67, and his speech thick with the burrs of New Zealand and very methodical made him difficult to follow. But he was unmistakably his brother, and John Hitt rushed to embrace him and then his son. His head rattled like a can of loose rocks. He was hungover after a night of partying and running late, a merchant sailor from Wisconsin.

He was hurrying toward the waterfront in Wellington, New Zealand, where his ship was ready to pull anchor. He had time if it left on schedule. But it didn't The freighter slipped out to sea half an hour early, leaving Alvin Hitt of Rhinelander, standing on a dock in New Zealand. The year was 1 948. In a few hours the details of the episode the ship gone, his mortification at missing it disappeared into an unyielding darkness which did not fully clear for nearly 45 years.

He couldn't have seen the car. It struck him as he was leaving the waterfront and sped on, the driver too frightened to stop. The 23-year-old sailor was taken unconscious to a hospital. Seven months later he left with his two fractured legs and injured hip sound enough to let him walk with a limp. His speech was slowed.

He couldn't hear in one ear. And he had no idea who he was. His amnesia, doctors said, was profound. Hospital attendants and police questioned him futilely. All of his possessions were on the ship.

That included all of his identification documents. He didn't know that he was a sailor. He knew nothing of a ship. To the New Zealanders, he talked like an American, but where in America, and what was he doing in New Zealand? beneath a log. 'hoto by Charles Bjorgen learly a half-century, the darkness of amneila has lifted for AMn enter, who waa reunited with his brother John, left Alvln'a son I conducted the March to dlacover his father's origlna.

"I never thought I'd see you again," Kiobuchar continued on page 6B he bid bovs make their bid bucks people i the backs of the lesser-paid shnwinc that in 1992 the averaee in Schwarzkopf is Chief During the Gulf War, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf said on TV that he had been made an honor-; aryOsagechief.lt was news to the Osage, but they liked the Idea and made it official in 1991. Monday, they formally named Schwarzkopf "Eagle Chief." Near Pawhuska, Schwarzkopf, wearing an Indian blanket held out his palms as Ed Red Eagle head of the Osage Eagle Clan, blessed him with a ceremonial eagle feather. Associated Press t9 '-I Doug Grow become the annual makes-you-i-and-throw-things issue of the ribune. onday, the newspaper's section ran its annual salary i of the compensation being the heads of 138 Minnesota-public companies.

other things, this survey was bottom-line proof that the business climate is balmy for ys who run the companies, is the bovs who remain in ite control of corporate A woman's name.can't nd among the top executive snsation packages that the Star urveyed. my, isn't that a surprise," anned Gloria Griffin, inator of the Minnesota en's Consortium, when she that women must have just the big-money cut again this IS. U.S. wage earner received $25,903. Minnesota, it should be noted, home of so many richly paid executives who sit around and moan about the state's bad business climate, pays its workers $600 a year under the national average.

Still not ready to scream? Bill Moore, communications director for the Minnesota AFL-CIO, says AFL-CIO figures show that executive compensation between 1982 and 1992 rose 551 percent Over the same period, wages of regular workers didn't do so well. They rose 6 1 percent And this year's survey, coupled with the AFL-CIO studies, means that the two-pronged effort of Rep. Martin Sabo, to put a limit on executive compensation while raising the minimum wage deserves more serious debate than it receives. Sabo keeps pointing out that since 1977 there has been a "radical, dangerous shift in income distribution." In 1977, he has noted, the top 1 percent of wage earners took home 8.3 percent of all income earned, while the bottom 40 percent took home 15 percent Now the top 1 percent take home 117 percent and the bottom 40 percent take home 117 percent meaning that low-income workers have sacrificed to pay the folks at the top ever more. Sabo would raise the minimum wage from the current $4.25 an hour to $6.50, because that amount would allow a full-time worker in a family Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Japan and the Philippines make the products that have made him so comfortable.

Bazinet's compensation package certainly isn't the only one that would catch the attention of the average American who is trying to figure out how to make both the car payment and the house payment this month. There are other compensation deals that make a democratic heart skip a beat. For example, just one company has two executives on the Top 10 compensation list It is United HealthCare which, among other things, owns Medica. Its chairman and president William McGuire, received $12,659,813 in 1992, and a vice president George Borkow, was paid $3,850,644. Next time you start hearing all the reasons that medical costs keep soaring, next time your health insurance premiums rise, remember that not all of the money is going to some highly trained surgeon or brilliant chemist A big pile of change is going to some of the corporate boys, who can't do a thing to lower your fever but who can sure make your blood pressure skyrocket This year's compensation survey pounds home an old message: Something is fundamentally messed up in the land of the free and the home of a few who are vastly overpaid.

When the salaries of the big boys are placed in context of what real people are being paid, they're not just outrageous, they're obscene. The top 50 on the big-money list received at least 1 million in compensation in 1992. Just last week, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released studies annulment and to go ahead with a civil wedding. Throat therapy for Conner Actor Sean Connery said Monday he had undergone radiotherapy treatment for a throat condition at a top London cancer hospital.

Famous for his film roles as British secret agent James Bond, Connery, 62, did not go into details about the nature of his health problem. But he said he had undergone six weeks of radiotherapy treatment at the Royal Marsden Hospital and the treatment forced him to miss the U.S. premiere of his new film, "Rising Sun." Almost four years ago, he had laser treatment to remove a growth on his vocal cords. U2 fan wants hearing on lack of hearing A Frenchman who alleges his hearing was seriously impaired at a concert in Marseille by the Irish pop group U2 is suing the organizers of the show, his lawyer said Monday. Muhammad Fofana, 34, said his hearing was damaged at the concert July 14 when he said he "sat as close as possible to the stage." Fofana said buzzing and hissing sounds suddenly drowned out the music and when the concert ended the noises did not.

A Marseille court will examine the case Oct. 27. Newspaper exec critical after wreck Knight-Ridder Inc. Chairman James Batten was critically injured Sunday night when his car struck a concrete light pole in Coral Gables, Fla. The 35-year veteran of Knight-Ridder, one of the nation's largest newspaper chains, was talking on his car telephone when the accident occurred about 7:20 p.m., police said.

Batten, 57, suffered head trauma, major lacerations to his face and a fractured left leg, doctors at Jackson Memorial Hospital told Knight-Ridder executives. FcIIini in a coma, put on a respirator Film director Federico Fellini was in a coma and breathing with the help of a respirator Monday after suffering a heart attack, doctors in Rome said. The personal physician of the 73-year-old Oscar winner, Dr. Gianf ranco Turchetti, called Fellini's condition "very grave but stable." Fellini suffered a stroke in August. Police kept hundreds of journalists and groups of well-wishers from the intensive care ward at Rome's Polyclinic Hospital.

Only family members and a few visitors were allowed past. Fellini was stricken at the hospital's rehabilitation center after dinner Sunday, when he appeared in good spirits and discussed plans for his 50th wedding anniversary, said his sister-in-law, Magdelena Masina. Fellini won Oscars for his films "La Strada" (1954), "The Nights of Cabiria (1957)," and "Amarcord(1973)." Joe Kennedy II to wed Saturday Rep. Joseph Kennedy II, will marry Beth Kelly, his personal secretary, in a civil ceremony at his home in Boston's Brighton district Oct. 23, his office announced.

Kennedy, 41 the son of Ethel Kennedy and the late Robert Kennedy, announced his engagement to Kelly, 36, in mid-July but no date had been previously set for the marriage. Kennedy was divorced in 1991 from his first wife, Sheila, after a marriage of 10 years. The couple has twin sons. He had sought an annulment of his first marriage to enable him to marry Kelly in a Catholic ceremony, but his first wife opposed the annulment. The Boston Globe reported Saturday that Kennedy and Kelly had decided not to wait for the outcome of the request to the Roman Catholic Church for an ompensation survey annually es just about everyone for the few white men who are much money.

i Capitalist in this year's survey vard Bazinet, chairman and executive officer of Department Mr. as he's probably at the club, collected 74,180 in 1992. night think that someone who this sort of money must be a ssional basketball player, a r-hitting outfielder, a rock star industrialist who heads a any that makes products vital ie security of the nation. At. is none of the above.

He is a who started a company that little porcelain things, such as houses, that people collect and shelves. That's right 1 80 in compensation for a who runs a company that makes ets. )uld be noted that $16 million of rinket man's compensation was j-time buyout of his oyment agreement it also should be noted that Mr. ompany is another example of lobal economy at work. While 8 sits in Minnesota shoveling up and piles of dollars, low-paid on the Pacific Rim in of three to maintain a living just barely above the poverty level.

(Working full time, the current minimum-wage worker is paid $8,800 a year, or about $2,500 less than Edward Bazinet made in an hour in 1992.) Sabo would also limit the tax deductibility of executive compensation. A company could deduct only the executive compensation that does not exceed 25 times the pay of the lowest-paid worker in the company. In the case of Edward Bazinet's company, that means that the lowest-paid worker would have to be paid $1 million a year. 1 American workers might bring that amount home in a lifetime. Pacific Rim workers need considerably longer.

vlnds of change mean that Paul Douglas will leave ARE in May PtA-cnn ic in fvtmit tnrfnv thr an Shnrtlv after the FBI confiscated from WCCO because of this retarde interest" in nnuclas' availahilitv: Peterson is in Detroit today tor an I Shortly after the FBI confiscated from WCCO because of this retarded ml DniiDlns is imitatine a C.J. intimate recording session that should only include him, Baker and an engineer. "Isn't that toughr said Peterson. Could Kevin Burns be the hardest working man in Aero Biz? Burns moonlights at St Paul's Sweatshop, where he sometimes rehearses under strange conditions, as a recent story reveals. There was an unusual amount of aerobics-related sounds coming out of the studio, where the lights were off.

The music was pumping out some of the current narcissistic rock tunes (Oh-baby-baby-I'm-sc-wonderful or something similar) while the aerobics instructor whooped, yelled, bounced, bopped and pumped those arms across the floor. Listeners could tell that something wasn't quite right here, as only one voice was making all this noise. Upon closer inspection, Burns was observed working away a class of one, not counting his reflection in the mirror. The lonely behavior was passed off as a lesson in Burns perfecting his instructing skills. Whatever.

If Burns works this hard as an assistant commissioner of the state Department of Public Safety, the citizens of Minnesota are getting their money's worth. sophomoric format I'd like you to find out why the station is not answering its angry letters. Because I have sent tons of letters to 'CCO and CBS complaining about the format I have not even gotten a form letter back from any of these guys. I have also sent tons of letters whining about WCCO to your particular newspaper and none of those have been printed, either. I don't know if there is something in cahoots with your newspaper and 'CCO.

I write fairly well. I have gotten form postcards back from the Strib, but not from CCO and CBS." Christy from New Hope "This is Pat from Minnetonka. I got so excited reading what you had to say about Ki WCCO-AM G.M. Rand Gottlieb. The minute they won the Marconi Award he started tearing the station down to put his on nincompoopery mark on it He's just turned it into garbage.

I just can't comprehend it I. turn to public radio now." Hap i Corbett ce'd us a letter to Gottlieb i that said: "Many of us are now referring to your station as 'W- r.pv the big turn-off!" Cheryl Johnson is happy at work, so CJ. couldn't possibly be mistaken for a WCCO-AM employee. "I've been told that I'd be welcome in a number of places when I'm free and clear." While the trio is the back yard for family relatives, Douglas said he's not limiting his opportunities to D.C. Douglas' forecast for his successor? "Somebody with more hair, sharper wit." "Someone who's still a fan of the station would love it, I'm sure," Tim Russell said of his once-worn WCCO-AM leather jacket Russell has donated the 1 50 item for tonight's Joffrey Rock Ballet-Prince pairing at Northrop.

Proceeds from the benie go to the American Diabetes Association. "I don't see any future reason for wearing" it said Russell, who got the Bad Neighbor Squeeze Treatment in January. Anita Baker has canceled three times on Paul Peterson, but he's going to give her one more chance. Ha! Peterson's so hyped about playing guitar on her next album that he'd re-sked as often as she wants. Baker, who has a reputation for being a perfectionist hasn't been quite ready for the guitar part on their previously scheduled appointment records from Dr.

John Najarian's office, we heard that his P.R. problems won't be real until "Minnesota Hospital" drops Dr. Caesarean. Attempts by the university yesterday to fire him iprobably change that Metro Traffic Control's John Lundell popped the question to colleague Pam Reid while walking around Lake Harriet Wednesday. "He didn't get down on his knees," Reid says.

"His reasoning was that we would start this phase of the relationship on an eye-to-eye level. It was very romantic. Great ring, too. Quite the sparkler. It's really bizarre because we've worked together for three years and really been dating for the last year." Radio listeners perceive the traffic control anchors as competitors because he's heard on certain stations and she on others.

In fact they sit 3 feet apart In addition to taking Reid as his lawful wife next spring, Lundell will also take P. J. Reid, as she's known on Cafe FM 105.7, and Kelly Roads, as she's known on Q106-FM in Princeton. 332-TIPS callers and tipsters want the Old Neighbor back: "I am so glad these car advertisers are pulling out front and moving on. The ro's meteorologist of note for of the past 11 years has ially told KARE-TV that he 't re-sign when his contract res in May.

"Putting the house tie market noted here two weeks is tangible evidence that we're negotiating," Douglas said iday, "that we're not dinking md." It's not a matter of money, geography; he wants his family er to relatives out East. "KARE been terrific. They put together a cage that would keep me here," Douglas, countering what he "a black eye" acquired by the ion when it lost an age rimination suit brought by ner sports anchor Tom Ryther. ile Douglas picked up the ather boy" tag when he blew into in reality the 35-year-old has into one of the area's most ular TV personalities. "There are ain things they just can't put on table that do matter new ortunities, new duties, the whole graphy question," he said.

"We've ie this decision. It's a firm ision." Douglas' colleagues eve he's bored, although he said itill enjoys coming to Channel 1 1. also wonder if he's given serious thought to how hard it is to get reestablished in a new market "We realize how good we have it up here," he said. "Emotionally, it's already been pretty hard" on his wife, Laurie, and kids Walt, and Brett, 3. "We have a lot of dear friends.

G.M. Hank Price is really terrific. I've kidded around with him and said, 'Hank, I'd love to take you with me wherever I We heard that Cecil Walker, prez and CEO of Gannett Broadcasting, was in town last week to woo Douglas over dinner. Douglas said budget matters, not his contract, brought Walker here. "We had a nice dinner and he was quite supportive," said Douglas.

There's already been some "very real.