St. Cloud Times from Saint Cloud, Minnesota • Page 15

SECTION Five Hurt in car crasti2C Two hurt in crash at mall2C Classified3C-5C mm Mon, Nov. 14, 1988 St. Cloud (Minn.) Times Architect build irioht no. tit jt" mf'r --zi- I 1 I Vj 2." 1 I 1 Wfc sr iSf 4i.V -iii -naianim mrn 'ir -fl'iii 'iMTf'i wrKW" Architect Thomas Olson has sat at the knee of the master and so it is no surprise that despite straying from the practice, he has never forgotten the ideal. Olson, who with his partner Merle Sykora, operates Design Unity, rural Clear Lake, developed his art during eight years in the 1950s working for and learning from one of America's greatest architects, the late Frank Lloyd Wright.

Olson's self-designed home and studio on the banks of the Mississippi River south of Clear Lake shows Wright's influence on Olson's thinking. The vaulted living spaces are defined yet open. A wall of windows in the living room and in the downstairs studio plus a screened deck provide a panoramic view of the woods and river. If the axiom "form follows function" is indeed true, it is Wright who attempted to redefine America's philosophy toward its living space. Wright's intent was to destroy the rigid concept of building design as a box, to open up the container that served only to provide shelter with no regard for the aesthetic, Olson said.

Wright also wanted to develop architecture that was unique to America's democratic society. Too much of American architecture is formed by taking bits and pieces from designs of other cultures and countries, or is actually not a design at all, Olson said. Olson absorbed these theories and more during his years at Wright's ar-chitectual haven, Taliesin, in Spring Green, Wis. After graduating from high school in his hometown of Hastings, Olson had wanted to go to New York to study interior design. But that dream was interrupted when he entered the National Guard during the Korean War.

When he was discharged, he enrolled at what was then the Minneapolis School of Art. At the school, he heard about Wright's commune. He went to see Wright at Taliesin and was asked to join his foundation in 1951. "We had apprenticeship training, there were no formal classes," Olson said. "It was sort of an art commune before anyone knew what a commune Along the way By TOM LARSON Times Staff Writer was.

It was a way of life more than anything. Mr. Wright said that you can't teach art, all you can do is create an environment in which it can be nurtured. It was a very wonderful life." The apprentices' work was never hypothetical; whatever work Wright's foundation did would eventually become a part of a residential home, a church or a commercial project, Olson said. The students were assigned to certain assignments, such as the drafting room, for long periods of time so they became familiar with seeing a job through to completion.

"Nothing that we did was wasted," Olson said. "Even when we had kitchen duty it helped because in the future when we would have to design a kitchen, we would know exactly what it should be like and what should go into it." Wright, his wife and students split time between Wisconsin and Arizona, spending summers at Spring Green and moving on to Taliesin West near Scottsdale when winter set in. The volume of work Wright and the foundation turned out was phenomenal during the 1950s and the commune bustled with creative energy. "It was a high time," Olson said. In 1959, Olson was sent to supervise construction of a house Wright had designed in Cincinnati.

In May 1959, Wright died. Olson finished his work in Cincinnati in July and then moved on to supervise a house project in Bakers-field, Calif, for about 1 V2 years. By 1961, Olson returned to Hastings Times photo by Jason Wachter Architect Thomas Olson's self-designed home and studio, on the banks of the Mississippi River south of Clear Lake, show Frank Lloyd Wright's influence. Olson operates his partner, Merle Sykora. Design Unity, Inc.

with business "was disconnected all the time," Olson said. By 1985, after 25 years, Olson said he had had enough "I burned out" and he sold the restaurant. He moved to the St. Cloud area to devote full attention to the design business. The restaurant left him with enough money that he could refuse jobs if he didn't like the idea, he said.

"People will come up to us and say man to be charged in wife's killing to take over his family's restaurant, the Mississippi Belle. His mother's health was failing and Olson began managing the restaurant with the idea that he would continue his architectual work on the side. But the restaurant business consumed so much of his time, architecture had to take a back seat. He and Sykora started Design Unity in 1973, but Sykora was based in St. Cloud and the chest from a sawed-off shotgun.

Dahl said police in both Crow Wing and Aitkin counties have dealt with the family in the past on a number of domestic assaults and other incidents. Moore walked into John's Tavern, a neighborhood bar near the family's home shortly after 11 p.m. Saturday. After calling police, Moore asked Benson if it would be all right for him to sit and drink his beer until police arrived. "I said it would be OK, if he behaved himself," she said.

"Then he started sobbing. He talked about trying to call Reagan, and he talked about how the Brainerd BRAINERD AP) A Brainerd man expected to be charged with second-degree murder today walked into a tavern, ordered a beer and then matter-of-factly told the bartender that he had just shot his wife. After getting a quarter from the bartender, he called police to tell them the same thing, then ordered another beer. "Just charge it to the Crow Wing County jail because that's where I'll be headed," he told bartender Gae Benson. On Sunday, police were holding Eu Drought's impact on forests not yet over State boarding schools strive to change image they want a Cape Cod, or a Victorian and I tell them I won't do it," Olson said.

"So much architecture in this country has no relation to the time or place. Part of the problem in America today is that the architecture is so bad." With a little imagination and increased education about the art, people can build a beautiful and functional home or building, Olson said. He stressed that Wright's fame made standoff. At one point, Dahl said the woman inside locked the door to the bar. Later, according to police, Moore might have threatened to hurt the woman.

Police rushed the bar and arrested Moore after they discovered he had only a screwdriver. The woman, who was not injured, was arrested for interfering with a police operation. Two men, the brother of the bar's owner and a son of the woman, also were arrested for obstruction outside the tavern after they refused to disperse when ordered to leave, police said. smaller than headmaster Father Lyle Ehmke would like, but its mission differs from the others'. "We're a school that helps boys explore a call to the ministry of the church," Ehmke said.

Although students receive a standard college curriculum, historically 10 percent have been ordained. That statistic most likely has changed, given the decline in people entering the Catholic ministery, he said. However, many students go into youth ministry, Catholic Charities or teaching in Catholic schools, "which we certainly regard as a form of ministry, so we feel we're successful in our mission," Ehmke said. Tuition, room and board are $2,600. Shattuck-St.

Mary's is trying to increase its population from 154 this year to 235 by 1992. Tuition, room and board are $12,560 for seven-day upper school students, $10,800 for five-day students. Garlinski said each student receives some financial aid. Boarding school enrollment generally is down across the country, according Schools2C state's largest the Winona-based $80 million business that provides fasteners and related construction supplies in eight states. Interest from the $5.7 million endowment will provide about $500,000 a year to Cotter's operating budget.

"I died when I heard about it, said an elated Brother William Rhody, education director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference. "It's the largest one-shot gift that a Catholic high school in Minnesota has received, and it's probably Gift2C him appear inaccesible or unafford-able, but that the bulk of his work were designs for residential homes. "The environment you live in is so important," Olson said. "But many homes are designed by builders who don't ha ve a good idea what it should be. There is no sense of material, no sense of continuity.

People feel they can't afford an architect when actually they can't afford not to have an architect." School events to promote 67th Education Week Most Central Minnesota schools have planned special programs and presentations this week as part of events marking the 67th annual American Education Week. Grade school students in St. Cloud, Sauk Rapids and Sartell have decorated shopping bags, each noting this year's theme of "America's Schools: Invest in Your Future" to be distributed in area grocery stores. At Jefferson Elementary in northeast St. Cloud, community residents will read to students from 1:30 to 2 p.m.

during the week. Special readings also are slated at Madison, Lincoln and Clearview elementary schools. Several schools will try to appeal to the public through culinary pursuits. A continental breakfast is planned at North Community School on Thursday while parents of South Elementary School students can sample school lunch later in the day. Parents also will be invited for lunch at Kennedy Elementary in St.

Joseph and at Upsala Elementary on Tuesday. Tuesday has been designated as "Grandparents Day" at both Rice Elementary and at Trinity Lutheran School in Sauk Rapids. Parents and grandparents also are invited to attend Trinity's weekly chapel service starting at 8:10 a.m. Other events include the junior high choral group from Apollo High School performing at Herbergers' on the Mall Germain, an ice cream social served by Westwood Elementary School teachers on Thursday and classroom visitations at most schools. Joint activities between some area public and parochial schools also are planned such as a get-acquainted tea for teachers and staff from Lincoln and St.

Augustine's elementary schools, as well as a coffee party for Madison and St. Peter's and Paul's elementary school personnel. Interested residents should contact their nearest school district office for a SSuca- American Education Week is jointly sponsored by the National Education Association, the American Legion, the U.S. Office of Education and nine other national organizations. Events to emphasize and promote education were discussed as early as 1919 as a means to solicit support for schools after draft boards during World War I discovered that about one-fourth of the military draftees at the time were illiterate and about 29 percent of the recruits were physically unfit.

gene Moore, 39, in the shotgun slaying of his 36-year-old wife, Debra, at their Brainerd home. The couple's five children ranging from an infant to an 8-year-old were taken into protective custody. Police said they believe none of the children witnessed the slaying, which occurred about 11 p.m. Saturday. Moore was arrested after a short standoff when police thought he might be holed up in the bar with a dangerous weapon.

Police Capt. Lyman Dahl said Debra Moore died of a single wound to the Cities area and the southern part of the state, where millions of dollars' worth of hardwoods are harvested each year. About 25 percent of the tree rows planted to shield farm fields in the St. Cloud area are ruined, setting erosion prevention programs back nearly 20 years. Windbreaks in other parts of the state also will have big gaps over the next few years because of the drought.

"One potato farmer near St. Cloud had five miles of windbreaks last I spring. Now he's got 5 miles of fire-1 wood, said Tom Eiber, the DNR's forest pest specialist for central Min- nesota. In northern Minnesota, where rainfall was normal for much of the summer, thousands of seedlings died in the blistering heat. Blandin Paper Co.

of Grand Rapids lost about 10 percent of the 500 acres of spruce and aspen it planted last spring, said Max Fulton, manager of Blandin's lands and forestry division. But Fulton and others in the northern parts of the state count themselves lucky when they look to the south. Trees2C planets Uranus and Pluto were out of sync. I don't think I thought anything. I was just trying to keep things going." Meanwhile, police called Benson, telling her to clear the bar.

All of the dozen customers inside immediately left except for one female patron who had started a conversation with Moore, who Benson said wavered between agitation and tearfulness. Police waited outside the bar for about 25 minutes, unable to determine whether Moore had any weapons. Police said that the woman remained in the bar voluntarily and that her safety was not in danger initially during the knit family," Garlinski said. St. John's Prepartory School in Col-legeville, founded in 1857, is the oldest of the three academic boarding schools in the state.

Shattuck-St. Mary's, founded one year later, is the only one offering boarding for girls. Boys-only Crosier Monastery and Seminary in Onamia was founded in 1912. The schools were founded for reasons far removed from elitism. An Episcopal priest, James Lloyd Breck, established Shattuck as a primary school for pioneer and Indian children.

Crosier and St. John's were founded to prepare Roman Catholic boys for the priesthood. The three schools have slightly different enrollment philosophies. Father Tom Andert, the headmaster at St. John's, with 227 students, said the school is small by design.

The school reserves the right to "disinvite" students each year, although it has to be for a substantial academic reason. Last year, 15 students were not invited back and another 25 were not accepted for admission. Tuition, room and board are $9,100. Crosier, with just 90 students, is larly not on secondary schools. Cotter High School, a private Catholic school with 217 girls and boys, got the offer of the endowment from the Hiawatha Education Foundation.

It was set up in 1987 by Kierlin, Slaggie, Gostomski and Henry McConnon, who all graduated from Cotter in the 1950s, and Jack Remick of Rochester. McConnon lives in State College, Pa. The foundation raised its money from the sale of Fastenal Co. stock donated by the five men, who also founded FARIBAULT (AP) Actor Marlon Brando's expulsion from a Minnesota boarding school after a dispute over cigarettes does nothing to dispel stereotypes about the institutions. At a time when boarding school enrollment is generally down across the country, Minnesota's three academic boarding schools are striving to change their link in the public mind with parents who are rich, absent or at their wits' end over troublesome children.

It's an attitude even some of their students battle. When freshman Abby Winger told her friends that she was attending Shattuck-St. Mary's School (Brando's former school), one of them gingerly asked what was wrong at home. But the truth was she had followed her younger brother to the school to see what living away from home was like. Parents sometimes feel twinges of guilt, said the school's headmaster, Jarek Garlinski.

"The mums say, "Why should I send my kid and I say, 'First, we have to drop the We're part of the family. I always say the best family to send a kid to boarding school is a closely MINNEAPOLIS (AP) The sound of trees falling from the searing summer of 1988 will echo through Minnesota forests, farm fields and yards through at least the next two years, experts say. If drought doesn't end this year, the devastation will be much worse for several years to come. No one knows the full extent of the economic damage to one of Minnesota's most valuable natural resources. Foresters are just beginning to tally the damage.

Nearly 10 percent of the red pine trees and 1 to 2 percent of the red oak trees in the southern two-thirds of the state died this year, according to preliminary state Department of Natural Resources' estimates. There have been additional losses in dozens of other tree varieties, especially birch and maple. As a result, large portions of the state are more vulnerable to soil erosion and the forest products industry could suffer unless the drought ends in the spring. There's been incredible devastation in urban and rural areas," said Ed Hayes, a forest pest specialist with the DNR. He oversees trees in the Twin Ar i i $5 million Catholic school gift is WINONA AP) Three natives of this southeastern Minnesota city are relatively unknown in their community even though they just helped put together a $5.7 million gift for their local high school.

Bob Kierlin, Steve Slaggie and Mike Gostomski like it that way, and they would prefer to continue living in such relative anonymity in this city of 25,000. But that won't be easy. Gifts of $5.7 million don't drop out of the Minnesota sky too often, particu Today's quote (It was sort of an art commune before anyone knew what a commune was. It was a way of life more than anything. Mr.

Wright said that you can't teach art, all you can do is create an environment in which it can be nurtured. It was a very wonderful Architect Thomas Olson said about studying under Frank Lloyd Wright Sm report this page..