WICHITA, Kan.-The Wichita State Shockers welcome the Cincinnati Bearcats to Charles Koch Arena for the final American Athletic Conference regular season matchup between the schools.

UP NEXT: @ SOUTH FLORIDA Sunday, Jan. 8 | Noon CT (1 p.m. ET) | ESPN+ Tampa Fla. | Yuengling Center

AND THEN: TULSA Saturday, Jan. 14 | 3 p.m.&nbsp; CT | ESPN+ Wichita, Kan. | Charles Koch Arena

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/1/1672922609019.jpeg" alt="WSU VS CINCY" />
 <figcaption>WSU VS CINCY</figcaption>
 </figure>WICHITA, Kan.-The Wichita State Shockers welcome the Cincinnati Bearcats to Charles Koch Arena for the final American Athletic Conference regular season matchup between the schools.OPENING TIPS:<ul>
 <li>Thursday's game is a Yellow Out. Fans are encouraged to dress accordingly.</li><li>UC – which departs this summer for the Big 12 – has won 9 of the AAC era 11 meetings. Six of those Bearcat victories have come in the last 60 seconds.</li><li>Cincinnati is 4-1 in five AAC era visits to the Roundhouse. The rest of the league is a combined 8-31 over that span.</li><li>The Bearcats swept last year's home-and-home, winning a 61-57 defensive struggle in Wichita and an 85-76 shootout in Cincinnati.</li><li>WSU is 0-2 to start conference play. Career-highs from&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/kenny-pohto/7214">Kenny Pohto</a>&nbsp;(21 points, 11 rebounds) and&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/shammah-scott/7224">Shammah Scott</a>&nbsp;(19 points, 5/7 3pt) weren't enough in Saturday's 79-69 setback against visiting East Carolina.</li><li><a href="https://goshockers.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/craig-porter-jr-/7213">Craig Porter Jr.</a>&nbsp;missed last Wednesday's opener at UCF (during which WSU managed just 45 points) due to injury and played just 18 minutes against ECU.</li><li>Porter is the team's leading scorer (11.9 ppg) and ranks among the AAC leaders in assists (6th, 3.8), blocks (4th, 1.6) and steals (8th, 1.6).</li><li>11 of the 13 Shockers who have seen action this year are new to the active roster. A crop of nine transfers includes junior wing&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/jaykwon-walton/7208">Jaykwon Walton</a>&nbsp;(11.7 ppg, team-high 6.5 rpg) and sophomore shooting guard&nbsp;Jaron Pierre&nbsp;Jr. (9.6 ppg).</li><li>Walk-on guard&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/melvion-flanagan/7218">Melvion Flanagan</a>&nbsp;has enjoyed a meteoric rise. He played just two minutes in the first eight games of the season but has averaged 9.4 points on 9-of-20 three-point shooting over the past month.</li><li>WSU ranks among the nation's top-10 in field goal percentage defense (.369). Per KenPom, the Shockers' effective field goal percentage (a measurement that adjusts for the greater difficulty and upside of making three-point shots) is the nation's fifth-lowest (.425) behind Tennessee (.377), Houston (.387), Utah (.408) and Rutgers (.416).</li><li>WSU is 7-1 this season when out-shooting its opponent (26-5 overall under&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/coaches/isaac-brown/1064">Isaac Brown</a>).</li><li>Per KenPom, WSU's bench has played 36.7% of the minutes this year -- tops among AAC schools.</li>
 </ul> ON THIS DATE: JAN. 5 :<ul>
 <li>1963 --&nbsp;Playing on its home floor at Armory Fieldhouse, top-ranked UC knocked off No. 8 Wichita, 63-50, for its 29th&nbsp;consecutive win, holding Shocker All-American Dave Stallworth to 10 points in the process. WU got it revenge on Feb. 16 in Wichita with Stallworth going for 46 points in a 65-64 win that stopped UC's streak at 37.</li><li>1967 --&nbsp;Helped by Warren Armstrong's 24 points and 16 rebounds (and the very vocal support of 10,979 fans) WSU upset No. 10 Bradley, 83-69, at the Roundhouse.</li><li>2014 –&nbsp;WSU notched win No. 15 in a 35-0 start by taking down Northern Iowa at home, 67-53, led by All-Americans Fred VanVleet (22 points on 8-of-12 shooting) and Cleanthony Early (18 points, seven rebounds).&nbsp; The Shockers trailed 12-2 out of the gate but took the lead for good with 5:25 left in the first half and led by as many as 20 points down the stretch.</li>
 </ul> PIERRE PROGRESSING:<ul>
 <li><a href="https://goshockers.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/jaron-pierre-jr-/7215">Jaron Pierre Jr.</a>&nbsp;averaged a team-best 12.8 points in December (up from 6.9 ppg in November), due in part to improved perimeter production.</li><li>With school out of session, Pierre has had ample time to work on his shooting mechanics. He's one of several Shockers who committed to taking an extra 200 shots a day in practice. During games, the sophomore has taken a more-selective approach, turning down guarded attempts in favor of stationary, rythmn threes.</li><li>The results have been positive. Pierre averaged 2.3 triples on 36.8% accuracy in his six December contests after hitting just 7-of-29 (.241) in seven November games.</li>
 </ul> ECU LEFTOVERS:<ul>
 <li><a href="https://goshockers.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/kenny-pohto/7214">Kenny Pohto</a>&nbsp;became the fifth Shocker to top 20 points in a game this season (with Scott narrowly missing out on being No. 6).</li><li>Pohto's seven offensive rebounds were the most by a Shocker since the 2021 AAC tournament when&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/morris-udeze/6192">Morris Udeze</a>&nbsp;snagged seven in a win over South Florida.</li><li>Scott's 5-for-7 three-point shooting day came on the heels of a 2-for-13 start to this Shocker career. His season percentage jumped from .154 to .350.</li><li>Per StatBroadcast, ECU's 1.295 points-per-possession was the highest for a WSU foe in the last two seasons.</li>
 </ul> ALSO TRENDING:<ul>
 <li>Due to a combination of injuries and inconsistent production,&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/coaches/isaac-brown/1064">Isaac Brown</a>&nbsp;has used eight different starting lineups over the last 10 games.</li><li><a href="https://goshockers.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/gus-okafor/7216">Gus Okafor</a>&nbsp;is two rebounds shy of 500 for his NCAA career and needs just 41 more points to reach 1,000. The 6-6 graduate transfer played his freshman season at Longwood and two more at Southeastern Louisiana.</li><li>Porter is shooting&nbsp;60.2%&nbsp;from inside the arc -- second-best among AAC guards behind Tulane's Sion James.</li><li>The Shockers finished December with a&nbsp;&nbsp;3-4&nbsp;record. In three of the four losses they held the opposition below 60 points.</li><li>WSU reserves are averaging a league-best&nbsp;23.7&nbsp;points.</li><li>WSU scored just 45 points in the loss at UCF, but its 53 offensive possessions were the fewest by a Shocker team since the 2014-15 season.</li><li>WSU has held&nbsp;11&nbsp;of its 14 opponents under 40% from the field. this year. The Shockers had done it in six straight games prior before last Saturday when ECU finished at 44.6%. Only Alcorn State (.455 on Nov. 12) has posted a higher percentage against the Shockers this year.</li><li>ECU's 79 points don't jump off the page, but its 1.295 points were the best by a WSU opponent in the last two seasons, per StatBroadcast. The Pirates made 10-of-25 threes (.400) and 19-of-22 free throws while committing just eight turnovers.</li><li>ECU's 40% three-point night matched the season-high for a WSU opponent (MVSU was 4-of-10 on Dec. 13). The Shockers rank 26thnationally in three-point field goal percentage defense (.284).</li><li>ECU's 19 free throws and 22 makes were also season-bests for WSU foes.</li><li>Sophomore 7-footer&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/quincy-ballard/7220">Quincy Ballard</a>&nbsp;finished the month of December with one of the more-unique stat lines. He blocked 10 shots over four games while attempting just five shots.</li>
 </ul> SCOUTING THE BEARCATS:<ul>
 <li>Second-year head coach&nbsp;Wes Miller&nbsp;returned four starters from last year's team (18-15, 7-11), led by third team all-conference guard&nbsp;David DeJulius, and added another talented scorer to the mix in Memphis transfer&nbsp;Landers Nolley II. Eight of the 15 Bearcats are listed as seniors, fifth-years or graduate students.</li><li>Picked third in the AAC preseason poll, UC is out to a 10-5 (1-1) start. Three of the five losses have to against teams currently ranked in the AP top-25: No. 5 Arizona, No. 18 Xavier and No. 24 Ohio State.</li><li>UC knocked off Tulane in its AAC opener but fell 70-61 at Temple on Sunday.</li><li>The Bearcats are 9-1 at home but have dropped six consecntuve true road games, last winning Feb. 12, 2022 at South Florida.</li><li>DeJulius (16.1 ppg) and Nolley (15.1) have combined to sink 67 threes (4.5-per-game) on 41.4% accuracy.</li><li>6-11 sophomore&nbsp;Viktor Lakhin&nbsp;averages 12.8 points and is the team's best rebounder (7.7) and shot-blocker (16). He's shooting a league-best 67.5% from the field. Per KenPom, Lakhin is also the AAC's best offensive (14.2%) and defensive rebounder (26.5%) and draws an average of 6.4 fouls-per-40-minutes (No. 2 in the AAC leaderboard).</li><li>UC leads the conference in threes-per-game (8.6), effective field goal percentage (.532) and defensive rebound percentage (.733) and ranks among the national leaders in assist-to-turnover ratio (25th, 1.45) and turnover percentage (11th, 14.8%).</li>
 </ul> MATCHUP MASHUP:<ul>
 <li>UC Associate Head Coach&nbsp;Chad Dollar&nbsp;was a member of the WSU coaching staff in 2010-11 and helped the Shockers win the NIT Championship with a 29-8 record.</li><li>When Dollar left Arkansas State in the spring of 2010 to join&nbsp;Gregg Marshall's WSU staff, head coach&nbsp;John Brady&nbsp;replaced him with a guy named&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/coaches/isaac-brown/1064">Isaac Brown</a>.</li><li>Prior to catching on with Brady, Dollar was a member of&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/coaches/billy-kennedy/1067">Billy Kennedy</a>'s first staff at Murray State (2006-07).</li><li>Cincinnati is one of only three teams with four-plus wins at Charles Koch Arena since its 2003 renovation and the only one from that group with a winning mark.</li>
 </ul> THE SERIES:<ul>
 <li>This is series game No. 41. Cincinnati leads 27-13.</li><li>WSU won the first AAC era meeting in 2018 but has dropped nine of the last 10 since. Six of those losses came come in the final minute.</li><li>The Shockers' last series win came on Jan. 10, 2021 in Wichita. UC has taken the last three meetings beginning with a win in the 2021 AAC semifinals and continuing with last year's regular season sweep.</li><li>This will be the final AAC regular season matchup between the schools with UC departing this summer for the Big 12. Due to the league's unbalanced schedule the Shockers will not travel to Cincinnati.</li><li>UC is 11-9 in Wichita (4-1 AAC era with three last-second wins).</li>
 </ul> A SHOCKER WIN WOULD...<ul>
 <li>Make them 8-7 and snap a two-game skid.</li><li>Be their first in AAC play (1-2).</li><li>Be their third in 12 AAC era meetings with UC.</li><li>Narrow UC's all-time series lead to 27-14 (11-10 in Wichita).</li>
 </ul> A SHOCKER LOSS WOULD...<ul>
 <li>Drop them under .500 for the first time since a 1-2 start to the 2020-21 season.</li><li>Give them three straight losses for the first time since Feb. 17-27, 2022.</li><li>Make them 0-3 in AAC play for the second year in a row (started 0-4 last year).</li><li>Make them 2-10 vs. UC in the AAC era.</li><li>Up UC's all-time lead to 28-13 (12-9 in Wichita).</li>
 </ul> UP NEXT: @ SOUTH FLORIDA Sunday, Jan. 8 | Noon CT (1 p.m. ET) | ESPN+ Tampa Fla. | Yuengling Center<ul>
 <li>USF (7-7, 0-1 heading into Wednesday's home game against Temple) was 0-5 to start the year but finished non-conference play with wins in five straight and seven of its last eight.</li><li>The Bulls were picked ninth out of 11 teams in the AAC preseason poll -- one notch behind WSU.</li><li>The Shockers have won the last six meetings and lead the all-time series 7-1.</li><li>WSU took the lone 2022 matchup (Feb. 12, 2022 in Wichita), 73-69. with help from&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/craig-porter-jr-/7213">Craig Porter Jr.'s</a>&nbsp;11 points, seven rebounds and six assists.</li><li>This will be the Shockers first visit to Tampa since a&nbsp; wild, 82-77 overtime win on Dec. 22, 2020.</li>
 </ul> AND THEN: TULSA Saturday, Jan. 14 | 3 p.m.&nbsp; CT | ESPN+ Wichita, Kan. | Charles Koch Arena<ul>
 <li>The rivals meet for the 138th&nbsp;time in a series that dates back to 1931.</li><li>At halftime, WSU will induct five new members into the Pizza Hut Shocker Sports Hall of Fame:&nbsp;Victor Everett&nbsp;(Track &amp; Field),&nbsp;Casey Gillaspie&nbsp;(Baseball),&nbsp;Emily Hiebert&nbsp;(Volleyball),&nbsp;Nikki Larch-Miller&nbsp;(Track &amp; Field) and&nbsp;Abbie Lehman Chaffin&nbsp;(Volleyball).</li>
 </ul>

🏀 MBB: Shockers host Cincinnati on Yellow Out night

Dr. Gilford J. Ikenberry, Jr., 92, of McPherson, passed away peacefully on Saturday, October 22, 2022, surrounded by family at The Cedars, McPherson.

Gilford John Ikenberry, Jr. was born the day after Christmas 1929 in Fargo, North Dakota, where his father taught botany at North Dakota State University. The family of three moved frequently during the Great Depression, and young Gilford’s boyhood residences ranged from Columbus, Ohio, to Kansas, to Berkeley, California, to Portales, New Mexico. He began fourth grade in Stillwater, Oklahoma, graduating from Stillwater High School in 1948. Gilford’s father had some friends on the faculty at McPherson College, including R. E. Mohler and Joseph Bowman, and other relatives lived close to campus, so McPherson seemed a good option for Gilford, Jr.’s post-secondary schooling.

While Gilford made his career and reputation as a botanist, he did his undergraduate degree at McPherson College in mathematics. His interest in music extended back to his childhood, and during his college years he sang bass in A Cappella Choir and in male quartettes, representing the college on many deputations during his four years. During his freshman year, a young coed from Dallas Center, Iowa, captured Gilford’s attention, and he and Nelda Jeanine Baldner married in 1951, prior to their senior year. Their union bore three children—Susan, John, and Nick—and the joy and stimulation Gilford and Nelda received from one another’s companionship over 71 years of marriage is inspirational.

After college Gilford taught at McLouth, for two years. He began taking classes at Oklahoma State University and discovered that he shared his father’s passion for botany. He completed the M.S. in botany and plant pathology at OSU in 1956, moving to Iowa State University to pursue a doctoral degree, which he received in 1959. He accepted a position at Michigan State University where he continued research in plant pathology. In 1961, McPherson College’s president Dr. Bittinger convinced Gilford to accept a position at McPherson College.

When Dr. Ikenberry moved into his Harnly Hall office in the fall of 1961 and began setting up a greenhouse and labs, the most respected, celebrated faculty team in the history of McPherson College was complete. For the next 25 years, Dr. Ikenberry teamed with Dr. John Burkholder and Dr. Wesley DeCoursey to produce class after class of outstanding science graduates, more than 250 in all, who went on to become successful researchers, physicians, surgeons, dentists, veterinarians, teachers, and academics.

Gilford was always characteristically modest about his part in the remarkable success of his students, dismissing the notion that he shared responsibility for their achievement. The role of the teacher, he said, “is simply to provide a stimulating environment so that learning may happen.” When students take off, “it’s fun to get out of the way and let them go.” One of the many ways Dr. Ikenberry excelled in creating the kind of environment that stimulated student learning was in his design of academic field trips. Hundreds of students learned how to think about the natural world by studying the ecosystems of the desert Southwest, the tropics of Belize and Costa Rica, the marine biology of coastal Oregon, and the high-altitude wilderness of the Rocky Mountains in January and summer travel courses that he planned and taught.

For nearly all his life, Gilford spent summers with family at their Black River Harbor cottages on Lake Superior. Summer months with their children, grandsons, family, and friends were spent hiking the trails of the northern Michigan woods, walking the beaches of Lake Superior, exploring Black River’s great waterfalls, identifying and photographing plants, trees, and fungi, taking the boat up the beach to explore remote spots, or going fishing on Michigan’s many smaller lakes. He also enjoyed woodworking and refurbishing the cottages at Black River.

Gilford cared deeply about nature and spent most of his years exploring rich, natural environments around the globe with his love and partner, Nelda. They hiked and hut-hopped in the Austrian and Swiss Alps, explored the wilds of Scotland and Ireland, visited historic churches in Germany, and enjoyed concerts in Vienna. In addition to exploring the flora and fauna of China and Central America, they spent many months researching the work of botanist/great aunt Mary Clemens who collected and identified plants in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Australia, and other parts of the South Pacific in the early 1900s. Gilford was an accomplished photographer, and he and Nelda are well- known for their beautiful slideshow presentations that detail their international adventures.

Gilford Ikenberry’s other contributions to his college, church, and community are numerous. He and Nelda have given generously to their church and their alma mater.

Guided by a strong sense of what is just and right, he supported organizations committed to preserving the environment, redressing inequities, and improving the health and well- being of our neighbors, in our country or around the globe. Gilford sang in the choir of the McPherson Church of the Brethren when he was at home in McPherson. He also served his local congregation on many church boards and commissions. He has been an active Rotarian for more than 40 years.

Gilford’s value-led life, his belief in the potential and abilities of family and friends, his mentorship of students and interest in their careers over the years, and his commitment to concerns of the environment, equity, and justice are only a few of the ways he has impacted and inspired so many of our lives. Through 71 years of his life’s journey, he was joined by his wife Nelda who was an equal partner in all their adventures.

Survivors include: wife, Nelda Jeanine Baldner Ikenberry, McPherson; daughter, Susan Jeanine Ikenberry and husband John Fredrick Humphrey, Black Mountain, North Carolina; son, Gilford John Ikenberry, 3rd&nbsp;and wife Lidia Reiko Usami, Princeton, New Jersey; son, Nicolas Scot Ikenberry, McPherson; grandson, Brett Johannes Ikenberry-Humphrey, Wilmington, North Carolina; grandson, Jackson Kan Ikenberry, Princeton, New Jersey.

Preceded in death by: father, Gilford John Ikenberry, Sr. (1890 to 1984); mother, Ruth Clemens Ikenberry (1892 to 1996); granddaughter, Tessa Mariko Usami Ikenberry (1995 to 1999).

A memorial service will be held on Friday, November 25, 2022, at 10:00 AM at the McPherson Church of the Brethren, McPherson. &nbsp;To view the livestream broadcast of the service, please click on the following link:&nbsp;<a href="https://youtu.be/i873Tlfewg0">https://youtu.be/i873Tlfewg0</a>

Dr. Gilford J. Ikenberry, Jr., 92, of McPherson, passed away peacefully on Saturday, October 22, 2022, surrounded by family at The Cedars, McPherson.Gilford John Ikenberry, Jr. was born the day after Christmas 1929 in Fargo, North Dakota, where his father taught botany at North Dakota State University. The family of three moved frequently during the Great Depression, and young Gilford’s boyhood residences ranged from Columbus, Ohio, to Kansas, to Berkeley, California, to Portales, New Mexico. He began fourth grade in Stillwater, Oklahoma, graduating from Stillwater High School in 1948. Gilford’s father had some friends on the faculty at McPherson College, including R. E. Mohler and Joseph Bowman, and other relatives lived close to campus, so McPherson seemed a good option for Gilford, Jr.’s post-secondary schooling.While Gilford made his career and reputation as a botanist, he did his undergraduate degree at McPherson College in mathematics. His interest in music extended back to his childhood, and during his college years he sang bass in A Cappella Choir and in male quartettes, representing the college on many deputations during his four years. During his freshman year, a young coed from Dallas Center, Iowa, captured Gilford’s attention, and he and Nelda Jeanine Baldner married in 1951, prior to their senior year. Their union bore three children—Susan, John, and Nick—and the joy and stimulation Gilford and Nelda received from one another’s companionship over 71 years of marriage is inspirational.After college Gilford taught at McLouth, for two years. He began taking classes at Oklahoma State University and discovered that he shared his father’s passion for botany. He completed the M.S. in botany and plant pathology at OSU in 1956, moving to Iowa State University to pursue a doctoral degree, which he received in 1959. He accepted a position at Michigan State University where he continued research in plant pathology. In 1961, McPherson College’s president Dr. Bittinger convinced Gilford to accept a position at McPherson College.When Dr. Ikenberry moved into his Harnly Hall office in the fall of 1961 and began setting up a greenhouse and labs, the most respected, celebrated faculty team in the history of McPherson College was complete. For the next 25 years, Dr. Ikenberry teamed with Dr. John Burkholder and Dr. Wesley DeCoursey to produce class after class of outstanding science graduates, more than 250 in all, who went on to become successful researchers, physicians, surgeons, dentists, veterinarians, teachers, and academics.Gilford was always characteristically modest about his part in the remarkable success of his students, dismissing the notion that he shared responsibility for their achievement. The role of the teacher, he said, “is simply to provide a stimulating environment so that learning may happen.” When students take off, “it’s fun to get out of the way and let them go.” One of the many ways Dr. Ikenberry excelled in creating the kind of environment that stimulated student learning was in his design of academic field trips. Hundreds of students learned how to think about the natural world by studying the ecosystems of the desert Southwest, the tropics of Belize and Costa Rica, the marine biology of coastal Oregon, and the high-altitude wilderness of the Rocky Mountains in January and summer travel courses that he planned and taught.For nearly all his life, Gilford spent summers with family at their Black River Harbor cottages on Lake Superior. Summer months with their children, grandsons, family, and friends were spent hiking the trails of the northern Michigan woods, walking the beaches of Lake Superior, exploring Black River’s great waterfalls, identifying and photographing plants, trees, and fungi, taking the boat up the beach to explore remote spots, or going fishing on Michigan’s many smaller lakes. He also enjoyed woodworking and refurbishing the cottages at Black River.Gilford cared deeply about nature and spent most of his years exploring rich, natural environments around the globe with his love and partner, Nelda. They hiked and hut-hopped in the Austrian and Swiss Alps, explored the wilds of Scotland and Ireland, visited historic churches in Germany, and enjoyed concerts in Vienna. In addition to exploring the flora and fauna of China and Central America, they spent many months researching the work of botanist/great aunt Mary Clemens who collected and identified plants in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Australia, and other parts of the South Pacific in the early 1900s. Gilford was an accomplished photographer, and he and Nelda are well- known for their beautiful slideshow presentations that detail their international adventures.Gilford Ikenberry’s other contributions to his college, church, and community are numerous. He and Nelda have given generously to their church and their alma mater.Guided by a strong sense of what is just and right, he supported organizations committed to preserving the environment, redressing inequities, and improving the health and well- being of our neighbors, in our country or around the globe. Gilford sang in the choir of the McPherson Church of the Brethren when he was at home in McPherson. He also served his local congregation on many church boards and commissions. He has been an active Rotarian for more than 40 years.Gilford’s value-led life, his belief in the potential and abilities of family and friends, his mentorship of students and interest in their careers over the years, and his commitment to concerns of the environment, equity, and justice are only a few of the ways he has impacted and inspired so many of our lives. Through 71 years of his life’s journey, he was joined by his wife Nelda who was an equal partner in all their adventures.Survivors include: wife, Nelda Jeanine Baldner Ikenberry, McPherson; daughter, Susan Jeanine Ikenberry and husband John Fredrick Humphrey, Black Mountain, North Carolina; son, Gilford John Ikenberry, 3rd&nbsp;and wife Lidia Reiko Usami, Princeton, New Jersey; son, Nicolas Scot Ikenberry, McPherson; grandson, Brett Johannes Ikenberry-Humphrey, Wilmington, North Carolina; grandson, Jackson Kan Ikenberry, Princeton, New Jersey.Preceded in death by: father, Gilford John Ikenberry, Sr. (1890 to 1984); mother, Ruth Clemens Ikenberry (1892 to 1996); granddaughter, Tessa Mariko Usami Ikenberry (1995 to 1999).A memorial service will be held on Friday, November 25, 2022, at 10:00 AM at the McPherson Church of the Brethren, McPherson. &nbsp;To view the livestream broadcast of the service, please click on the following link:&nbsp;<a href="https://youtu.be/i873Tlfewg0">https://youtu.be/i873Tlfewg0</a>

Dr. Gilford J. Ikenberry, Jr.  |1929-2022|  

<a href="https://goshockers.com/news/2022/11/10/athletics-2023-hall-of-fame-class-announced.aspx">Via GoShockers.com</a>

&nbsp;WICHITA, Kan. –Victor Everett (Track and Field), Casey Gillaspie (Baseball), Emily Hiebert (Volleyball), Nikki Larch-Miller (Track and Field) and Abbie Lehman Chaffin (Volleyball) have been selected as the 2023 Class of the Wichita State Pizza Hut Shocker Sports Hall of Fame. A dinner is set for 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 13 at the Beggs Ballroom on the Wichita State campus, while the induction ceremony is scheduled for halftime of Wichita State's Jan. 14 (3 p.m.) men's basketball game against Tulsa. Cost for the dinner is $50 per person, and paid reservations can be made online at&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.evenue.net/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/SEGetEventList?groupCode=SE&amp;linkID=wichita&amp;shopperContext=&amp;caller=&amp;appCode=">goshockers.com</a>&nbsp;or by calling the Shocker Ticket Office at 316/978-FANS or in person at the WSU Ticket Office located on the south side of Charles Koch Arena. The addition of this year's class brings the total of former coaches and student-athletes in the Hall of Fame to 156, while there are 13 at-large selections. Here's a look at each 2023 inductee's success at Wichita State: Victor Everett, Track and Field (1975-78) A standout sprinter for the Wichita track and field program from 1975-78…Three-time Missouri Valley Conference Outdoor Champion in the 400 meters (1976, 1977, 1978)…One of six athletes to achieve the three-peat as the MVC Outdoor 400-meter champion…MVC Indoor Conference Champion in the 400 meters (1978)…Set the MVC Outdoor Championship Meet record in the 400 meters with a 46.5 performance…A 1976 Olympic Trials qualifier in the 400 meters…Two-time NCAA Indoor National Championships qualifier and two-time NCAA Outdoor National Championships qualifier…Held Wichita State indoor records in the 400 meters, 600 yard run and as a member of the mile relay…Held Wichita State outdoor records in the 400 meters and as a member of the mile relay…His outdoor 400 meter and mile relay team performances are still number two on the Shocker all-time top-10 list…One of the best to perform for Coach Herm Wilson's track and field teams. Casey Gillaspie, Baseball (2012-14) First baseman for the Wichita State baseball program from 2012-14…Named a consensus First Team All-American in 2014, receiving honors from the ABCA, Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball, the NCBWA and Perfect Game…Named the fifth consensus First Team All-American in program history…Named the Joe Carter Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year in 2014 and was named First Team All-Valley and to the Valley All-Defense team at first base…As a junior in 2014, played and started in all 59 games and hit a team-best .389 with 50 runs, 82 hits, 15 doubles, one triple, 15 homers, 50 RBI, 58 walks and eight stolen bases and posted a .682 slugging percentage and .520 on-base percentage…Named ABCA All-Midwest Region in 2014…Named Second Team All-Valley and Valley All-Defense team selection in 2013…Named a Freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball in 2012…Selected MVC Scholar-Athlete honorable mention as a sophomore in 2013…Finished his career at Wichita State ranked fifth in fielding percentage (.992)…Drafted in the first round as the 20th&nbsp;overall pick in the 2014 MLB Draft by the Tampa Bay Rays. Emily Hiebert, Volleyball (2013-17) Setter for the Wichita State volleyball program from 2013-17…Named American Athletic Conference Setter of the Year in 2017…All-Conference First Team selection in The American in 2017…AVCA Honorable Mention All-Region honoree in 2017…Named Missouri Valley Conference Setter of the Year in 2016…First Team All-Conference in the MVC in 2015 and 2016…MVC All-Freshman Team selection in 2014…Three-time MVC All-Tournament team honoree (2014-16)…Three-time conference Player of the Week…Named Second Team Academic All-District in 2017…Two-time Valley Scholar-Athlete…Member of three NCAA Tournament teams…Helped lead the team to the 2015 Missouri Valley Conference regular-season and tournament titles and the 2016 MVC Tournament title…Helped lead the team to a 20-0 record in the American Athletic Conference in 2017 and a regular-season title…Finished her career at Wichita State first in assists (4,988), first in assists per set (10.68), fourth in matches played (131), fifth in sets played (467), sixth in double-doubles (52) and seventh in hitting percentage (.328). Nikki Larch-Miller, Track and Field (2013-17) Multi-event athlete for the Wichita State track and field program from 2013-17…Earned First Team All-American honors in the outdoor heptathlon in 2015…Earned Second Team All-American honors in the outdoor 4x100m relay in 2015…Earned Second Team All-American honors in the indoor pentathlon in 2017…Finished 11th overall in the 2017 NCAA indoor pentathlon with 4,088 points…Finished eighth overall in the 2015 NCAA outdoor heptathlon with 5,806 points…Finished 16th&nbsp;overall in the 2015 NCAA outdoor 4x100m relay…Qualified for NCAA Indoor Championships in 2017 in the pentathlon and for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 2015 in the 100m hurdles, 4x100m relay and heptathlon…Won six Missouri Valley Conference titles including indoor 60m twice, indoor 60m hurdles twice, outdoor 100m hurdles and indoor pentathlon…Named all-conference 21 times in her career…Earned MVC Most Valuable Female Athlete four times (2015 indoor and outdoor and 2017 indoor and outdoor)…Named MVC Women's Most Outstanding Track Athlete two times (2015 indoor and 2017 indoor)…Finished her career first in the Shocker record books in the indoor 60m, indoor 400m, indoor 4x400m relay, outdoor 4x400m relay, outdoor 100m, outdoor 200m, outdoor 100m hurdles and outdoor 4x100m relay, second in indoor 60m hurdles, indoor pentathlon and outdoor heptathlon, fifth in the indoor long jump, seventh in the indoor 200m and outdoor long jump and ninth in the outdoor 400m and outdoor 400m hurdles. Abbie Lehman Chaffin, Volleyball (2013-17) Middle blocker for the Wichita State volleyball program from 2013-17…Named a four-time honorable mention All-American…Named The American Player of the Year and First Team All-Conference in 2017…Senior CLASS Award Second Team All-American and CoSIDA First Team Academic All-District honoree in 2017… Four-Time AVCA First Team All-Region selection…Named First Team All-Valley three times (2014-16)…Valley All-Freshman honoree in 2014…Two-time Valley Scholar-Athlete…Six-time conference Player of the Week, seven-time conference Defensive Player of the Week and four-time conference Freshman of the Week…Member of three NCAA Tournament teams…Helped lead the team to the 2015 Missouri Valley Conference regular-season and tournament titles and the 2016 MVC Tournament title…Helped lead the team to a 20-0 record in the American Athletic Conference in 2017 and a regular-season title…Finished her career at Wichita State first in block assists (468), first in total blocks (531), second in hitting percentage (.411), third in kills (1,378), fourth in matches played (131), fourth in total points (1686.0), fourth in blocks per set (1.15), sixth in sets played (463), seventh in solo blocks (63), eighth in points per set (3.64) and 10th&nbsp;in kills per set (2.98).&nbsp;&nbsp;

<a href="https://goshockers.com/news/2022/11/10/athletics-2023-hall-of-fame-class-announced.aspx">Via GoShockers.com</a>&nbsp;WICHITA, Kan. –Victor Everett (Track and Field), Casey Gillaspie (Baseball), Emily Hiebert (Volleyball), Nikki Larch-Miller (Track and Field) and Abbie Lehman Chaffin (Volleyball) have been selected as the 2023 Class of the Wichita State Pizza Hut Shocker Sports Hall of Fame. A dinner is set for 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 13 at the Beggs Ballroom on the Wichita State campus, while the induction ceremony is scheduled for halftime of Wichita State's Jan. 14 (3 p.m.) men's basketball game against Tulsa. Cost for the dinner is $50 per person, and paid reservations can be made online at&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.evenue.net/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/SEGetEventList?groupCode=SE&amp;linkID=wichita&amp;shopperContext=&amp;caller=&amp;appCode=">goshockers.com</a>&nbsp;or by calling the Shocker Ticket Office at 316/978-FANS or in person at the WSU Ticket Office located on the south side of Charles Koch Arena. The addition of this year's class brings the total of former coaches and student-athletes in the Hall of Fame to 156, while there are 13 at-large selections. Here's a look at each 2023 inductee's success at Wichita State: Victor Everett, Track and Field (1975-78) A standout sprinter for the Wichita track and field program from 1975-78…Three-time Missouri Valley Conference Outdoor Champion in the 400 meters (1976, 1977, 1978)…One of six athletes to achieve the three-peat as the MVC Outdoor 400-meter champion…MVC Indoor Conference Champion in the 400 meters (1978)…Set the MVC Outdoor Championship Meet record in the 400 meters with a 46.5 performance…A 1976 Olympic Trials qualifier in the 400 meters…Two-time NCAA Indoor National Championships qualifier and two-time NCAA Outdoor National Championships qualifier…Held Wichita State indoor records in the 400 meters, 600 yard run and as a member of the mile relay…Held Wichita State outdoor records in the 400 meters and as a member of the mile relay…His outdoor 400 meter and mile relay team performances are still number two on the Shocker all-time top-10 list…One of the best to perform for Coach Herm Wilson's track and field teams. Casey Gillaspie, Baseball (2012-14) First baseman for the Wichita State baseball program from 2012-14…Named a consensus First Team All-American in 2014, receiving honors from the ABCA, Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball, the NCBWA and Perfect Game…Named the fifth consensus First Team All-American in program history…Named the Joe Carter Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year in 2014 and was named First Team All-Valley and to the Valley All-Defense team at first base…As a junior in 2014, played and started in all 59 games and hit a team-best .389 with 50 runs, 82 hits, 15 doubles, one triple, 15 homers, 50 RBI, 58 walks and eight stolen bases and posted a .682 slugging percentage and .520 on-base percentage…Named ABCA All-Midwest Region in 2014…Named Second Team All-Valley and Valley All-Defense team selection in 2013…Named a Freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball in 2012…Selected MVC Scholar-Athlete honorable mention as a sophomore in 2013…Finished his career at Wichita State ranked fifth in fielding percentage (.992)…Drafted in the first round as the 20th&nbsp;overall pick in the 2014 MLB Draft by the Tampa Bay Rays. Emily Hiebert, Volleyball (2013-17) Setter for the Wichita State volleyball program from 2013-17…Named American Athletic Conference Setter of the Year in 2017…All-Conference First Team selection in The American in 2017…AVCA Honorable Mention All-Region honoree in 2017…Named Missouri Valley Conference Setter of the Year in 2016…First Team All-Conference in the MVC in 2015 and 2016…MVC All-Freshman Team selection in 2014…Three-time MVC All-Tournament team honoree (2014-16)…Three-time conference Player of the Week…Named Second Team Academic All-District in 2017…Two-time Valley Scholar-Athlete…Member of three NCAA Tournament teams…Helped lead the team to the 2015 Missouri Valley Conference regular-season and tournament titles and the 2016 MVC Tournament title…Helped lead the team to a 20-0 record in the American Athletic Conference in 2017 and a regular-season title…Finished her career at Wichita State first in assists (4,988), first in assists per set (10.68), fourth in matches played (131), fifth in sets played (467), sixth in double-doubles (52) and seventh in hitting percentage (.328). Nikki Larch-Miller, Track and Field (2013-17) Multi-event athlete for the Wichita State track and field program from 2013-17…Earned First Team All-American honors in the outdoor heptathlon in 2015…Earned Second Team All-American honors in the outdoor 4x100m relay in 2015…Earned Second Team All-American honors in the indoor pentathlon in 2017…Finished 11th overall in the 2017 NCAA indoor pentathlon with 4,088 points…Finished eighth overall in the 2015 NCAA outdoor heptathlon with 5,806 points…Finished 16th&nbsp;overall in the 2015 NCAA outdoor 4x100m relay…Qualified for NCAA Indoor Championships in 2017 in the pentathlon and for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 2015 in the 100m hurdles, 4x100m relay and heptathlon…Won six Missouri Valley Conference titles including indoor 60m twice, indoor 60m hurdles twice, outdoor 100m hurdles and indoor pentathlon…Named all-conference 21 times in her career…Earned MVC Most Valuable Female Athlete four times (2015 indoor and outdoor and 2017 indoor and outdoor)…Named MVC Women's Most Outstanding Track Athlete two times (2015 indoor and 2017 indoor)…Finished her career first in the Shocker record books in the indoor 60m, indoor 400m, indoor 4x400m relay, outdoor 4x400m relay, outdoor 100m, outdoor 200m, outdoor 100m hurdles and outdoor 4x100m relay, second in indoor 60m hurdles, indoor pentathlon and outdoor heptathlon, fifth in the indoor long jump, seventh in the indoor 200m and outdoor long jump and ninth in the outdoor 400m and outdoor 400m hurdles. Abbie Lehman Chaffin, Volleyball (2013-17) Middle blocker for the Wichita State volleyball program from 2013-17…Named a four-time honorable mention All-American…Named The American Player of the Year and First Team All-Conference in 2017…Senior CLASS Award Second Team All-American and CoSIDA First Team Academic All-District honoree in 2017… Four-Time AVCA First Team All-Region selection…Named First Team All-Valley three times (2014-16)…Valley All-Freshman honoree in 2014…Two-time Valley Scholar-Athlete…Six-time conference Player of the Week, seven-time conference Defensive Player of the Week and four-time conference Freshman of the Week…Member of three NCAA Tournament teams…Helped lead the team to the 2015 Missouri Valley Conference regular-season and tournament titles and the 2016 MVC Tournament title…Helped lead the team to a 20-0 record in the American Athletic Conference in 2017 and a regular-season title…Finished her career at Wichita State first in block assists (468), first in total blocks (531), second in hitting percentage (.411), third in kills (1,378), fourth in matches played (131), fourth in total points (1686.0), fourth in blocks per set (1.15), sixth in sets played (463), seventh in solo blocks (63), eighth in points per set (3.64) and 10th&nbsp;in kills per set (2.98).&nbsp;&nbsp;

2023 Shocker Sports Hall of Fame class announced

LIBERAL – Freshman&nbsp;<a href="https://bluedragonsports.com/sports/wvball/2022-23/bios/golden_taniya_58dk">Taniya Golden</a>&nbsp;pounded down 24 kills and the Hutchinson Community College Volleyball team nearly pulled off a huge fourth-set comeback on Friday in the Region VI Tournament semifinals at the Greenhouse.

The Blue Dragons fought off two match points against No. 20 Butler, but couldn't have a third as the Grizzlies defeated Hutchinson for the third time this season, 20-25, 25-25, 25-20, 27-25.

Hutchinson's season comes to an end at 26-12.

Golden had 24 kills on 50 attacks and hit .260 to lead a Blue Dragons offense that hut .161 for the match. Golden just missed a double-double with nine kills.

Freshman&nbsp;<a href="https://bluedragonsports.com/sports/wvball/2022-23/bios/fery_perline_iyqs">Perline Fery</a>&nbsp;had six kills and freshman&nbsp;<a href="https://bluedragonsports.com/sports/wvball/2022-23/bios/dean_anna_mwqh">Anna Dean</a>&nbsp;had five kills.

Despite 11 team blocks, the Dragons had trouble with Butler's balanced attack with four players having nine or more kills. The Grizzlies hit .247 for the match.

Setter&nbsp;<a href="https://bluedragonsports.com/sports/wvball/2022-23/bios/serrano_andrea_m5cv">Andrea Serrano</a>&nbsp;had 22 assists and an ace and six digs. Freshman&nbsp;<a href="https://bluedragonsports.com/sports/wvball/2022-23/bios/ravanhani_giovanna_aek6">Giovanna Ravenhani</a>&nbsp;had 13 assists.

Libero&nbsp;<a href="https://bluedragonsports.com/sports/wvball/2022-23/bios/harvey_morgan_2ssb">Morgan Harvey</a>&nbsp;finished with 18 digs and sophomore&nbsp;<a href="https://bluedragonsports.com/sports/wvball/2022-23/bios/connor_sophie_eb64">Sophie Connor</a>&nbsp;had 16 digs.

Set 1: Tied at 5-all, the Blue Dragons went on a 7-2 run that was capped by a Golden kill to give the Dragons a 12-7 lead. The Dragons sided out well in the opening set, never allowing the Grizzlies to score more than two points in any rotation for the remainder of the set. The Dragons built a 23-16 lead and the Grizzlies cut it to 24-20 before Golden's fifth kill of the set closed the set for Hutchinson, winning 25-20.

Set 2: The Blue Dragons hit just .067 in the second set. Still a Golden kill gave the Dragons an 11-8 lead. After four ties in the set, the Grizzlies took the lead for good at 16-15 on a Carrie Roe kill, which started a 6-1 Butler run. Roe had four kills in the set and closed out the set with a kill to knot the match at 1-1.

Set 3:&nbsp;<a href="https://bluedragonsports.com/sports/wvball/2022-23/bios/fery_perline_iyqs">Perline Fery</a>'s kill gave the Blue Dragons a 10-5 lead and forced a Butler timeout. Butler immediately scored six in a row, but an&nbsp;<a href="https://bluedragonsports.com/sports/wvball/2022-23/bios/briseno_aleandra_n0jz">Alejandra Briseno</a>&nbsp;kill stopped that run to tie the set at 11-all. Tied at 15, Golden was balled for an illegal set and Grizzlies followed that with back-to-back kills for an 18-15 lead. A Harvey kill pulled the Dragons within 18-17. Rowe stopped that advance with a kill and Kennedy Kelly had an ace for a 30-17 lead. The Grizzlies finished out the set to take a 2-1 match lead.

Set 4: Butler's Rainey Aven threw down a setter dump for a kill to that the fourth set. The Grizzlies jumped on that momentum and built a 17-11 lead. The Blue Dragons went on a 9-2 run and took a 20-19 lead on a Grizzly attack error. The Dragons took a 20-19 lead on a Golden kill, but Aven had another kill to tie the set at 20. A Golden kill gave the Dragons a set point at 24-23, but Aven did the Dragons in again. Trailing 25-24, Golden had her 24th kill of the match. Butler scored the final two points to put the Dragons away.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1667645700442.jpeg" alt="Hutch Volleyball season ends" />
 <figcaption>Hutch Volleyball season ends</figcaption>
 </figure>Hutchinson CC Sports InformationLIBERAL – Freshman&nbsp;<a href="https://bluedragonsports.com/sports/wvball/2022-23/bios/golden_taniya_58dk">Taniya Golden</a>&nbsp;pounded down 24 kills and the Hutchinson Community College Volleyball team nearly pulled off a huge fourth-set comeback on Friday in the Region VI Tournament semifinals at the Greenhouse.The Blue Dragons fought off two match points against No. 20 Butler, but couldn't have a third as the Grizzlies defeated Hutchinson for the third time this season, 20-25, 25-25, 25-20, 27-25.Hutchinson's season comes to an end at 26-12.Golden had 24 kills on 50 attacks and hit .260 to lead a Blue Dragons offense that hut .161 for the match. Golden just missed a double-double with nine kills.Freshman&nbsp;<a href="https://bluedragonsports.com/sports/wvball/2022-23/bios/fery_perline_iyqs">Perline Fery</a>&nbsp;had six kills and freshman&nbsp;<a href="https://bluedragonsports.com/sports/wvball/2022-23/bios/dean_anna_mwqh">Anna Dean</a>&nbsp;had five kills.Despite 11 team blocks, the Dragons had trouble with Butler's balanced attack with four players having nine or more kills. The Grizzlies hit .247 for the match.Setter&nbsp;<a href="https://bluedragonsports.com/sports/wvball/2022-23/bios/serrano_andrea_m5cv">Andrea Serrano</a>&nbsp;had 22 assists and an ace and six digs. Freshman&nbsp;<a href="https://bluedragonsports.com/sports/wvball/2022-23/bios/ravanhani_giovanna_aek6">Giovanna Ravenhani</a>&nbsp;had 13 assists.Libero&nbsp;<a href="https://bluedragonsports.com/sports/wvball/2022-23/bios/harvey_morgan_2ssb">Morgan Harvey</a>&nbsp;finished with 18 digs and sophomore&nbsp;<a href="https://bluedragonsports.com/sports/wvball/2022-23/bios/connor_sophie_eb64">Sophie Connor</a>&nbsp;had 16 digs.Ivy Fink led Butler with 12 kills.Set 1: Tied at 5-all, the Blue Dragons went on a 7-2 run that was capped by a Golden kill to give the Dragons a 12-7 lead. The Dragons sided out well in the opening set, never allowing the Grizzlies to score more than two points in any rotation for the remainder of the set. The Dragons built a 23-16 lead and the Grizzlies cut it to 24-20 before Golden's fifth kill of the set closed the set for Hutchinson, winning 25-20.Set 2: The Blue Dragons hit just .067 in the second set. Still a Golden kill gave the Dragons an 11-8 lead. After four ties in the set, the Grizzlies took the lead for good at 16-15 on a Carrie Roe kill, which started a 6-1 Butler run. Roe had four kills in the set and closed out the set with a kill to knot the match at 1-1.Set 3:&nbsp;<a href="https://bluedragonsports.com/sports/wvball/2022-23/bios/fery_perline_iyqs">Perline Fery</a>'s kill gave the Blue Dragons a 10-5 lead and forced a Butler timeout. Butler immediately scored six in a row, but an&nbsp;<a href="https://bluedragonsports.com/sports/wvball/2022-23/bios/briseno_aleandra_n0jz">Alejandra Briseno</a>&nbsp;kill stopped that run to tie the set at 11-all. Tied at 15, Golden was balled for an illegal set and Grizzlies followed that with back-to-back kills for an 18-15 lead. A Harvey kill pulled the Dragons within 18-17. Rowe stopped that advance with a kill and Kennedy Kelly had an ace for a 30-17 lead. The Grizzlies finished out the set to take a 2-1 match lead.Set 4: Butler's Rainey Aven threw down a setter dump for a kill to that the fourth set. The Grizzlies jumped on that momentum and built a 17-11 lead. The Blue Dragons went on a 9-2 run and took a 20-19 lead on a Grizzly attack error. The Dragons took a 20-19 lead on a Golden kill, but Aven had another kill to tie the set at 20. A Golden kill gave the Dragons a set point at 24-23, but Aven did the Dragons in again. Trailing 25-24, Golden had her 24th kill of the match. Butler scored the final two points to put the Dragons away.

🏐 Blue Dragons have season end in Region VI Semis

John Stuart Stephens died October 31, 2022, at the age of 87.&nbsp; He was born in Muskegon, MI, to John Logan Stephens and Viola Anderson Stephens.&nbsp; When John was 13, his father died.&nbsp; His mother moved John and his sister to Coffeyville.&nbsp; In junior high, he accidentally ran his arm through a glass door, severing tendons and nerves in his right arm.&nbsp; The arm was saved, but his hand never returned to normal usage.&nbsp; Despite this handicap, John achieved all-state status in football, basketball, and track.&nbsp; He attended the University of Missouri on a basketball scholarship and went on to receive a MBA from Missouri.

While in graduate school, John met his future wife, Peg Whitney Stephens.&nbsp; They were married August 26, 1962.&nbsp; John and Peg have two daughters, Ann W. Bush of Hutchinson and Catherine L. Stephens of Billings, MT.

After college, John went to work for Sinclair Oil Company, ending his career with them doing contractor sales.&nbsp; In 1974, he and Peg bought City Beverage Company, an Anheuser-Busch distributorship, from Jim and Vivian Peterie in Hutchinson.&nbsp; John had found his niche.&nbsp; He received pleasure in working with his customers, employees, and seeing the company grow from being housed in an air force base Quonset hut to a large climate-controlled warehouse complex.&nbsp; In 2002, John and Peg retired and the business was sold to Ann and Bob Bush.

John loved to travel with family and friends.&nbsp; There were numerous memorable trips to Crested Butte, CO, the Grand Canyon, and Chloride, NM&nbsp; All became the source of much laughter and family folklore.&nbsp; Although John wasn’t known for his patience, he enjoyed fishing, and organized several fishing trips to Canada and Alaska.&nbsp; Upon his return from those trips, John entertained his family, his Fraese Drug coffee group, and his bridge friends with many a humorous fishing tale.

John will be remembered as a man of integrity who loved his family and had little patience for electronics.&nbsp; He never learned to use a computer or a cell phone. John was a member of First Congregational Church, Hutchinson.

He was preceded in death by:&nbsp; his parents; sister, Ruth Stephens Stevens; and son-in-law, Robert C. Bush.

John is survived by:&nbsp; his wife, Peg; daughters, Ann Bush and Catherine Stephens (Jon Bushey); grandson, Jack C. Bush; niece, Elizabeth Ann Hansen (Mark) of Fairview, TX; and nephew, Paul Max Stevens (Cathy) of Mecosta, MI.

Funeral service will be 10 a.m. Monday, November 7, 2022, at First Congregational Church, 3410 N. Plum, Hutchinson, KS, with Pastor Matt Stafford officiating.&nbsp; Burial will be 3 p.m. Monday, November 7, 2022, in Fairview Cemetery, 2602 Woodland Avenue, Coffeyville.&nbsp; 

Friends may call from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, November 4, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, November 5, and from 1 to 8 p.m. Sunday, November 6, with the family present from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday at Elliott Mortuary.&nbsp; The funeral service can be viewed online by going to the following website:&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://firstcongregationalhutch.org/">https://firstcongregationalhutch.org/</a>&nbsp;and selecting the ‘Livestream’ drop down and then the ‘Memorial Service for John Stephens’ link.&nbsp; The casket will remain closed.

John Stuart Stephens died October 31, 2022, at the age of 87.&nbsp; He was born in Muskegon, MI, to John Logan Stephens and Viola Anderson Stephens.&nbsp; When John was 13, his father died.&nbsp; His mother moved John and his sister to Coffeyville.&nbsp; In junior high, he accidentally ran his arm through a glass door, severing tendons and nerves in his right arm.&nbsp; The arm was saved, but his hand never returned to normal usage.&nbsp; Despite this handicap, John achieved all-state status in football, basketball, and track.&nbsp; He attended the University of Missouri on a basketball scholarship and went on to receive a MBA from Missouri.While in graduate school, John met his future wife, Peg Whitney Stephens.&nbsp; They were married August 26, 1962.&nbsp; John and Peg have two daughters, Ann W. Bush of Hutchinson and Catherine L. Stephens of Billings, MT.After college, John went to work for Sinclair Oil Company, ending his career with them doing contractor sales.&nbsp; In 1974, he and Peg bought City Beverage Company, an Anheuser-Busch distributorship, from Jim and Vivian Peterie in Hutchinson.&nbsp; John had found his niche.&nbsp; He received pleasure in working with his customers, employees, and seeing the company grow from being housed in an air force base Quonset hut to a large climate-controlled warehouse complex.&nbsp; In 2002, John and Peg retired and the business was sold to Ann and Bob Bush.John loved to travel with family and friends.&nbsp; There were numerous memorable trips to Crested Butte, CO, the Grand Canyon, and Chloride, NM&nbsp; All became the source of much laughter and family folklore.&nbsp; Although John wasn’t known for his patience, he enjoyed fishing, and organized several fishing trips to Canada and Alaska.&nbsp; Upon his return from those trips, John entertained his family, his Fraese Drug coffee group, and his bridge friends with many a humorous fishing tale.John will be remembered as a man of integrity who loved his family and had little patience for electronics.&nbsp; He never learned to use a computer or a cell phone. John was a member of First Congregational Church, Hutchinson.He was preceded in death by:&nbsp; his parents; sister, Ruth Stephens Stevens; and son-in-law, Robert C. Bush.John is survived by:&nbsp; his wife, Peg; daughters, Ann Bush and Catherine Stephens (Jon Bushey); grandson, Jack C. Bush; niece, Elizabeth Ann Hansen (Mark) of Fairview, TX; and nephew, Paul Max Stevens (Cathy) of Mecosta, MI.Funeral service will be 10 a.m. Monday, November 7, 2022, at First Congregational Church, 3410 N. Plum, Hutchinson, KS, with Pastor Matt Stafford officiating.&nbsp; Burial will be 3 p.m. Monday, November 7, 2022, in Fairview Cemetery, 2602 Woodland Avenue, Coffeyville.&nbsp; Friends may call from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, November 4, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, November 5, and from 1 to 8 p.m. Sunday, November 6, with the family present from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday at Elliott Mortuary.&nbsp; The funeral service can be viewed online by going to the following website:&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://firstcongregationalhutch.org/">https://firstcongregationalhutch.org/</a>&nbsp;and selecting the ‘Livestream’ drop down and then the ‘Memorial Service for John Stephens’ link.&nbsp; The casket will remain closed.

John Stuart Stephens  |1935-2022|  

Homer Eugene “Gene” Copeland, a native Texan, veteran of World War II and the Korean War, co-founder of underground storage, junk dealer, hardware store proprietor, museum curator and Yellow Dog Democrat, died on Oct. 17, 2022. He was 96 years old.

Gene was born at home on May 7, 1926, in Alder Branch, Anderson County, Texas, to Albert Allen Copeland and Lockey Belle (Marr) Copeland. He was the third of eight children.

In conversations several years before his death, Gene recounted some boyhood memories. During the Depression, the family lived on a farm located on the outskirts of Palestine, Texas. They ate what they grew. “One of our favorite dishes was egg noodles cooked in tomato sauce” made from tomatoes his mother canned. “We ate very little meat, just a little pork or a little chicken. Hogs were killed in the winter and sugar cured, smoke seasoned and salted so it could be eaten in the months ahead. My dad would say, ‘When the bacon got so rancid you couldn’t eat it, it was time to plant cotton.’ ”

Growing up on a farm, Gene learned a multitude of skills that would serve him throughout his life. He helped his dad in the field, worked with livestock and milked cows (his least favorite chore). With his mother, he helped raise turkeys and cultivate tomatoes, with proceeds from the sales used to pay doctor bills and other debts. As a kid, Gene most enjoyed what he called “riding the go-devil.” It was a little sled pulled by two mules that would help disk the dirt around the base of the plants.

Toward the end of high school, Gene moved to Palestine, where he worked at a small grocery store. He would arrive at the store before 7 a.m. to receive the bread delivery, then attend vocational-agriculture classes at school. He graduated from Palestine High School on June 2, 1944. On Aug.1 of the same year, he got a letter that said: “Greetings from the President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt.” He had been drafted for World War II.

On Aug. 28, 1944, Gene began his military life. The Army Air Corps took him to Amarillo, Texas, for basic training and airplane-mechanics school. Upon completion, he shipped out to Gulfport, Miss., where he worked on B-29s on a production line. “I did the same job every day, all day: changed the No. 3 spark plugs in engines. It was very monotonous.”

Gene left Gulfport in September 1945. Even though the war was over in Europe and Japan, the country still needed troops. Gene reupped in the service and was sent to Kearns, Utah, where he got his first clue of what was to come. “I drew all winter clothes: parkas, winter boots, thick blankets.” His squadron was loaded onto an old excursion boat in Seattle, the David W. Branch. “The next morning, I woke up and was so sick I couldn’t hold my head up,” he said. After 21 days, he landed in Shemya, a small island in the chain of Aleutians far off the coast of Alaska. There, he lived in a Quonset hut embedded in the snow. He was initially assigned to work on airplanes, but his ability as a jack-of-all-trades took him all over the island. He was the squadron barber and movie projectionist; he was given a motor pool with a few trucks to look after; he distributed both the beer and liquor rations and occasionally cans of Campbell’s soup, coffee, crackers and cheese to get the men through wiliwaw storms that could last up to 10 days. “I did a little of everything,” he said. “We all went up there as PFCs, and me and a few others made sergeant within nine months.”

Gene’s enlistment ended on Oct. 30, 1946, and he returned to Palestine. There, he heard about oilman Sid Richardson’s plans to build a gasoline plant outside of Kermit, Texas, and applied for a job. When he was hired, his boss was Gaines “Smokey” Billue. In Odessa and Kermit, Gene was assigned to maintain instruments on oil wells across the Permian Basin, taking readings and changing charts on 300 different wells. “I liked the job – the idea that I was working and finally independent. Jobs were very scarce then.”

Gene worked for the Sid Richardson Co. until 1950, when he was called back into service as part of the Air Force Reserves. This stint would take him to Shreveport, La., where he was put on B-29 maintenance and also worked on RB-35s, small reconnaissance bombers. “Every casual plane that came in, I’d work on too—a B-36, an XC-99,” he said.

His stint was up on Oct. 30, 1951. “I went back to Kermit to get my job back, and I found out they had fired me [because] they were all mad at Billue!” The irascible Smokey had quit Sid Richardson to pursue his vision for “underground storage,” in which salt is dissolved deep in the earth to create caverns to store petroleum products. In the spring of 1952, Billue dispatched Gene to McPherson, Kan., to develop a method for creating caverns and storing fuels. “I worked in McPherson for three summers—’52, ’53 and ’55,” he said. During that time, Gene lived at the Warren Hotel and ate all his meals for less than $5 a day.

In 1954, Gene and Smokey Billue went to Gallup, N.M., to drill an experimental storage well underground in shale (instead of salt) El Paso Natural. In Gallup, Gene met Betty (nee Carey), the woman who would become his wife.&nbsp; “She was working at the El Rancho, where we were staying,” he recalled. “One of the drillers I knew said, ‘I know a gal you might like.’ So we went out. I was in Gallup a couple of three months until the weather turned cold.” When he returned to Palestine, Gene asked his sister to help him pick out an engagement ring, which was then mailed to Betty in New Mexico. Happily, Betty said yes.

Meanwhile, Gene went back to work for Billue in Tishomingo, Okla. “I told Billue I was getting married, and he told me not to. I insisted, and he took me to the Wichita Falls airport and handed me a ticket—which was my paycheck. I found out before I got on the plane that the ticket was absolutely worthless, so I had to buy my own plane ticket to Albuquerque and only had $16 left in my pocket. When I got to the train depot in Albuquerque for a ride to Gallup it was full. So I went around the gate through an opening in the fence. I didn’t get caught until toward the end of the trip, when the conductor asked me for my ticket. I said I only had $16 and he said that would do. When I got to Gallup, Betty said, ‘I’m sure glad you got here, because I was going to get married tonight—even if I had to marry the best man.’ ”

Gene and Betty were married in Clovis, N.M., and honeymooned at a motel owned by the same people who owned the El Rancho, where Betty had worked. “We got the bridal suite and a big bowl of fruit.” Shortly after, they moved to Wichita Falls, Texas, where Gene helped build a gasoline plant, earning $200 a month—“that’s all Billue was paying me.” In May 1956, Gene and Betty moved full-time to McPherson so he could work full time on underground storage. “Betty didn’t want to come at first,” he said.

In 1963, Gene quit his job with Billue and went to work for NCRA as a consultant at $1,000 a month. “We put in four wells, two big brine ponds, a whole bunch of pipeline and a whole bunch of manifolds. It took about six months.” After that, he was bored. “I’d sit in the office all day, every day—just sitting in case something went wrong.”

About this time, a friend persuaded Gene to buy Casebeer Company Inc., a salvage yard owned by John Casebeer. Gene renamed the business Copeland Supply, mainly bidding on oilfield salvage – taking pipe, breaking down oil derricks and hauling scrap metal that could be resold as a commodity. Gene also bought and salvaged metal from an Atlas missile base.

In 1974, Gene bought a building on Main Street in McPherson that formerly housed an auto dealership. Copeland Supply expanded, offering hardware, auto parts and a full-service steel-fabrication shop. It was located right next door to B &amp; G Hardware (formerly Hawley Hardware), which was purchased in 1972 and independently operated by Gene’s wife, Betty.

Gene and Betty were also busy on the home front, with four children, Ron, Rick, Karan and Beth. Larry Brickey, who was Betty’s son from a previous marriage, lived in Arizona but had been a part of the Copeland home life as well. Larry’s son, also named Larry, lived with Gene and Betty when he was in high school. Likewise, Karan’s son, Alex, lived with his grandparents for most of his formative years.

Family was tightly woven into Gene’s civic life. He was a Sunday School teacher at First Baptist Church, board member of the local YMCA, and deeply involved in Boy Scouts, Webelos and DeMolay, a youth organization of the Masons and Eastern Star. A longtime Shriner, Gene appeared in countless May Day parades decked out in his fez driving a miniature Model T car.

As a member of McPherson’s Chamber of Commerce, Gene took about 40 trips with other men in the group to major U.S. cities. Over the years, he was honored three times: once as Man of the Year, once as Key Man, and most recently as the chamber’s Traveling Ambassador.

Particularly close to his heart was the Old Mill Museum in Lindsborg, Kan. As a board member, Gene helped with the museum’s finances, acquisitions and long-term growth. His key contribution was in the form of a steam locomotive (purchased for $1) that was painstakingly moved from Hutchinson, Kan., and reassembled in Lindsborg over the course of seven years. It now sits next to the train depot on the Old Mill grounds.

After about 15 years in business, Betty liquidated B&amp;G Hardware. She died in 1994 at age 62 after an 11-year battle with breast cancer. In 2001, when Gene turned 75, he sold Copeland Supply and took on a new career: owner-director of the Pioneer Heritage Museum on Mulberry Street. With artifacts salvaged during his junk-dealing days, Gene set up displays of early life in rural Kansas. Hundreds of wrenches were mounted on peg boards; hog oilers, ice tongs, corn grinders and cast-iron tractor seats were among the highlights. Other artifacts included a dentist’s chair, surgical instruments and a barber’s chair.

Around 2005, Gene auctioned off his vast collection and sold his building to the proprietor of an auto-repair shop. But Gene held court nearby at an adjacent barn that he owned. (He moved into the barn full time in 2018.) There he hosted the Red Barn Coffee Club, where guests could enjoy hot coffee and warm peanuts while sitting in downright uncomfortable chairs.

<a></a>Gene was preceded in death by his parents, brothers and wife, as well as two sons: Larry Brickey in 2015 and Rick Copeland in 2018. Surviving are his sister, Eleanor Browder of Huntsville, Texas; his son Ron (Nancy) of Fort Worth, Texas; Karan Rumple of Wichita, Kansas; and Beth (Chuck) DeCarbo of Sunset, S.C. He also leaves behind numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

<a></a><a></a>The family will receive friends from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM, Sunday, October 23, 2022, at Stockham Family Funeral Home.&nbsp; The funeral service will be held at 10:30 AM, Monday, October 24, at Stockham Family Funeral Home.&nbsp; Burial, with Military Honors and Masonic Rites, will follow at McPherson Cemetery.

Memorial donations are suggested to Shriners Hospitals for Children in care of Stockham Family Funeral Home, 205 North Chestnut, McPherson, KS 67460.

Personal condolences may be sent to the family at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.stockhamfamily.com/" target="_blank">www.stockhamfamily.com</a>.

Homer Eugene “Gene” Copeland, a native Texan, veteran of World War II and the Korean War, co-founder of underground storage, junk dealer, hardware store proprietor, museum curator and Yellow Dog Democrat, died on Oct. 17, 2022. He was 96 years old.Gene was born at home on May 7, 1926, in Alder Branch, Anderson County, Texas, to Albert Allen Copeland and Lockey Belle (Marr) Copeland. He was the third of eight children.In conversations several years before his death, Gene recounted some boyhood memories. During the Depression, the family lived on a farm located on the outskirts of Palestine, Texas. They ate what they grew. “One of our favorite dishes was egg noodles cooked in tomato sauce” made from tomatoes his mother canned. “We ate very little meat, just a little pork or a little chicken. Hogs were killed in the winter and sugar cured, smoke seasoned and salted so it could be eaten in the months ahead. My dad would say, ‘When the bacon got so rancid you couldn’t eat it, it was time to plant cotton.’ ”Growing up on a farm, Gene learned a multitude of skills that would serve him throughout his life. He helped his dad in the field, worked with livestock and milked cows (his least favorite chore). With his mother, he helped raise turkeys and cultivate tomatoes, with proceeds from the sales used to pay doctor bills and other debts. As a kid, Gene most enjoyed what he called “riding the go-devil.” It was a little sled pulled by two mules that would help disk the dirt around the base of the plants.Toward the end of high school, Gene moved to Palestine, where he worked at a small grocery store. He would arrive at the store before 7 a.m. to receive the bread delivery, then attend vocational-agriculture classes at school. He graduated from Palestine High School on June 2, 1944. On Aug.1 of the same year, he got a letter that said: “Greetings from the President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt.” He had been drafted for World War II.On Aug. 28, 1944, Gene began his military life. The Army Air Corps took him to Amarillo, Texas, for basic training and airplane-mechanics school. Upon completion, he shipped out to Gulfport, Miss., where he worked on B-29s on a production line. “I did the same job every day, all day: changed the No. 3 spark plugs in engines. It was very monotonous.”Gene left Gulfport in September 1945. Even though the war was over in Europe and Japan, the country still needed troops. Gene reupped in the service and was sent to Kearns, Utah, where he got his first clue of what was to come. “I drew all winter clothes: parkas, winter boots, thick blankets.” His squadron was loaded onto an old excursion boat in Seattle, the David W. Branch. “The next morning, I woke up and was so sick I couldn’t hold my head up,” he said. After 21 days, he landed in Shemya, a small island in the chain of Aleutians far off the coast of Alaska. There, he lived in a Quonset hut embedded in the snow. He was initially assigned to work on airplanes, but his ability as a jack-of-all-trades took him all over the island. He was the squadron barber and movie projectionist; he was given a motor pool with a few trucks to look after; he distributed both the beer and liquor rations and occasionally cans of Campbell’s soup, coffee, crackers and cheese to get the men through wiliwaw storms that could last up to 10 days. “I did a little of everything,” he said. “We all went up there as PFCs, and me and a few others made sergeant within nine months.”Gene’s enlistment ended on Oct. 30, 1946, and he returned to Palestine. There, he heard about oilman Sid Richardson’s plans to build a gasoline plant outside of Kermit, Texas, and applied for a job. When he was hired, his boss was Gaines “Smokey” Billue. In Odessa and Kermit, Gene was assigned to maintain instruments on oil wells across the Permian Basin, taking readings and changing charts on 300 different wells. “I liked the job – the idea that I was working and finally independent. Jobs were very scarce then.”Gene worked for the Sid Richardson Co. until 1950, when he was called back into service as part of the Air Force Reserves. This stint would take him to Shreveport, La., where he was put on B-29 maintenance and also worked on RB-35s, small reconnaissance bombers. “Every casual plane that came in, I’d work on too—a B-36, an XC-99,” he said.His stint was up on Oct. 30, 1951. “I went back to Kermit to get my job back, and I found out they had fired me [because] they were all mad at Billue!” The irascible Smokey had quit Sid Richardson to pursue his vision for “underground storage,” in which salt is dissolved deep in the earth to create caverns to store petroleum products. In the spring of 1952, Billue dispatched Gene to McPherson, Kan., to develop a method for creating caverns and storing fuels. “I worked in McPherson for three summers—’52, ’53 and ’55,” he said. During that time, Gene lived at the Warren Hotel and ate all his meals for less than $5 a day.In 1954, Gene and Smokey Billue went to Gallup, N.M., to drill an experimental storage well underground in shale (instead of salt) El Paso Natural. In Gallup, Gene met Betty (nee Carey), the woman who would become his wife.&nbsp; “She was working at the El Rancho, where we were staying,” he recalled. “One of the drillers I knew said, ‘I know a gal you might like.’ So we went out. I was in Gallup a couple of three months until the weather turned cold.” When he returned to Palestine, Gene asked his sister to help him pick out an engagement ring, which was then mailed to Betty in New Mexico. Happily, Betty said yes.Meanwhile, Gene went back to work for Billue in Tishomingo, Okla. “I told Billue I was getting married, and he told me not to. I insisted, and he took me to the Wichita Falls airport and handed me a ticket—which was my paycheck. I found out before I got on the plane that the ticket was absolutely worthless, so I had to buy my own plane ticket to Albuquerque and only had $16 left in my pocket. When I got to the train depot in Albuquerque for a ride to Gallup it was full. So I went around the gate through an opening in the fence. I didn’t get caught until toward the end of the trip, when the conductor asked me for my ticket. I said I only had $16 and he said that would do. When I got to Gallup, Betty said, ‘I’m sure glad you got here, because I was going to get married tonight—even if I had to marry the best man.’ ”Gene and Betty were married in Clovis, N.M., and honeymooned at a motel owned by the same people who owned the El Rancho, where Betty had worked. “We got the bridal suite and a big bowl of fruit.” Shortly after, they moved to Wichita Falls, Texas, where Gene helped build a gasoline plant, earning $200 a month—“that’s all Billue was paying me.” In May 1956, Gene and Betty moved full-time to McPherson so he could work full time on underground storage. “Betty didn’t want to come at first,” he said.In 1963, Gene quit his job with Billue and went to work for NCRA as a consultant at $1,000 a month. “We put in four wells, two big brine ponds, a whole bunch of pipeline and a whole bunch of manifolds. It took about six months.” After that, he was bored. “I’d sit in the office all day, every day—just sitting in case something went wrong.”About this time, a friend persuaded Gene to buy Casebeer Company Inc., a salvage yard owned by John Casebeer. Gene renamed the business Copeland Supply, mainly bidding on oilfield salvage – taking pipe, breaking down oil derricks and hauling scrap metal that could be resold as a commodity. Gene also bought and salvaged metal from an Atlas missile base.In 1974, Gene bought a building on Main Street in McPherson that formerly housed an auto dealership. Copeland Supply expanded, offering hardware, auto parts and a full-service steel-fabrication shop. It was located right next door to B &amp; G Hardware (formerly Hawley Hardware), which was purchased in 1972 and independently operated by Gene’s wife, Betty.Gene and Betty were also busy on the home front, with four children, Ron, Rick, Karan and Beth. Larry Brickey, who was Betty’s son from a previous marriage, lived in Arizona but had been a part of the Copeland home life as well. Larry’s son, also named Larry, lived with Gene and Betty when he was in high school. Likewise, Karan’s son, Alex, lived with his grandparents for most of his formative years.Family was tightly woven into Gene’s civic life. He was a Sunday School teacher at First Baptist Church, board member of the local YMCA, and deeply involved in Boy Scouts, Webelos and DeMolay, a youth organization of the Masons and Eastern Star. A longtime Shriner, Gene appeared in countless May Day parades decked out in his fez driving a miniature Model T car.As a member of McPherson’s Chamber of Commerce, Gene took about 40 trips with other men in the group to major U.S. cities. Over the years, he was honored three times: once as Man of the Year, once as Key Man, and most recently as the chamber’s Traveling Ambassador.Particularly close to his heart was the Old Mill Museum in Lindsborg, Kan. As a board member, Gene helped with the museum’s finances, acquisitions and long-term growth. His key contribution was in the form of a steam locomotive (purchased for $1) that was painstakingly moved from Hutchinson, Kan., and reassembled in Lindsborg over the course of seven years. It now sits next to the train depot on the Old Mill grounds.After about 15 years in business, Betty liquidated B&amp;G Hardware. She died in 1994 at age 62 after an 11-year battle with breast cancer. In 2001, when Gene turned 75, he sold Copeland Supply and took on a new career: owner-director of the Pioneer Heritage Museum on Mulberry Street. With artifacts salvaged during his junk-dealing days, Gene set up displays of early life in rural Kansas. Hundreds of wrenches were mounted on peg boards; hog oilers, ice tongs, corn grinders and cast-iron tractor seats were among the highlights. Other artifacts included a dentist’s chair, surgical instruments and a barber’s chair.Around 2005, Gene auctioned off his vast collection and sold his building to the proprietor of an auto-repair shop. But Gene held court nearby at an adjacent barn that he owned. (He moved into the barn full time in 2018.) There he hosted the Red Barn Coffee Club, where guests could enjoy hot coffee and warm peanuts while sitting in downright uncomfortable chairs.<a></a>Gene was preceded in death by his parents, brothers and wife, as well as two sons: Larry Brickey in 2015 and Rick Copeland in 2018. Surviving are his sister, Eleanor Browder of Huntsville, Texas; his son Ron (Nancy) of Fort Worth, Texas; Karan Rumple of Wichita, Kansas; and Beth (Chuck) DeCarbo of Sunset, S.C. He also leaves behind numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.<a></a><a></a>The family will receive friends from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM, Sunday, October 23, 2022, at Stockham Family Funeral Home.&nbsp; The funeral service will be held at 10:30 AM, Monday, October 24, at Stockham Family Funeral Home.&nbsp; Burial, with Military Honors and Masonic Rites, will follow at McPherson Cemetery.Memorial donations are suggested to Shriners Hospitals for Children in care of Stockham Family Funeral Home, 205 North Chestnut, McPherson, KS 67460.Personal condolences may be sent to the family at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.stockhamfamily.com/" target="_blank">www.stockhamfamily.com</a>.

Homer Eugene “Gene” Copeland |1926-2022|

Jon's life began on January 20, 1967, in Dallas, Oregon. He is the son of Orley and Karen (Garrison)Friesen. 

Jon is a graduate of Hillsboro High School. He was united in marriage to Dawn Jenkins on September 7, 1999, in Salina. Jon was employed at Pizza Hut in Herington for many years and loved his job. He truly never met a stranger. Jon had a heart of gold and helped wherever he could. He had many routines, starting every morning with his coffee and bible. 

If Jon had your phone number, you were likely to get a text every morning and evening, and on Saturdays he would always call his dad and his sister Kim. Spending time with his wife, watching football, K-State being his favorite, game shows, and playing with his nephews were some of his favorite things to do. Most importantly, Jon loved Jesus and would often ask questions about scriptures he didn't understand. He participated in many different Special Olympic events, basketball being his favorite. He took pride in wearing his cowboys’ boots, hat and looking sharp. 

Jon is survived by his wife Dawn Friesen of Herington, Father Orley Friesen of Oregon, mother-in-law Susan Buchwald of Herington, father-in-law Tom (Jean) Jenkins of New Mexico, sister Kimberly (Scott) Simms of Oregon, sister-in-law Kristi (Kurt) Michaelson of Oklahoma, nieces and nephews Crystal Beynon, Becky Connolly, Kaleb Michaelson, and Kyle Michaelson and four great nieces and nephews. Jon passed away at his home on Thursday September 29, 2022. He is preceded in death by his mother, two brothers and a sister. 

His family will gather with friends on Thursday October 6, 2022, at the Faith Covenant Fellowship, Herington at 11 a.m. for his memorial service.&nbsp;

Jon's life began on January 20, 1967, in Dallas, Oregon. He is the son of Orley and Karen (Garrison)Friesen. Jon is a graduate of Hillsboro High School. He was united in marriage to Dawn Jenkins on September 7, 1999, in Salina. Jon was employed at Pizza Hut in Herington for many years and loved his job. He truly never met a stranger. Jon had a heart of gold and helped wherever he could. He had many routines, starting every morning with his coffee and bible. If Jon had your phone number, you were likely to get a text every morning and evening, and on Saturdays he would always call his dad and his sister Kim. Spending time with his wife, watching football, K-State being his favorite, game shows, and playing with his nephews were some of his favorite things to do. Most importantly, Jon loved Jesus and would often ask questions about scriptures he didn't understand. He participated in many different Special Olympic events, basketball being his favorite. He took pride in wearing his cowboys’ boots, hat and looking sharp. Jon is survived by his wife Dawn Friesen of Herington, Father Orley Friesen of Oregon, mother-in-law Susan Buchwald of Herington, father-in-law Tom (Jean) Jenkins of New Mexico, sister Kimberly (Scott) Simms of Oregon, sister-in-law Kristi (Kurt) Michaelson of Oklahoma, nieces and nephews Crystal Beynon, Becky Connolly, Kaleb Michaelson, and Kyle Michaelson and four great nieces and nephews. Jon passed away at his home on Thursday September 29, 2022. He is preceded in death by his mother, two brothers and a sister. His family will gather with friends on Thursday October 6, 2022, at the Faith Covenant Fellowship, Herington at 11 a.m. for his memorial service.&nbsp;

Jon Marvin Friesen  |1967-2022|  

MOSCOW (AP) — Mikhail Gorbachev, who as the last leader of the Soviet Union waged a losing battle to salvage a crumbling empire but produced extraordinary reforms that led to the end of the Cold War, died Tuesday. He was 91.

The Central Clinical Hospital said in a statement that Gorbachev died after a long illness. No other details were given.

Though in power less than seven years, Gorbachev unleashed a breathtaking series of changes. But they quickly overtook him and resulted in the collapse of the authoritarian Soviet state, the freeing of Eastern European nations from Russian domination and the end of decades of East-West nuclear confrontation.

His decline was humiliating. His power hopelessly sapped by an attempted coup against him in August 1991, he spent his last months in office watching republic after republic declare independence until he resigned on Dec. 25, 1991. The Soviet Union wrote itself into oblivion a day later.

A quarter-century after the collapse, Gorbachev told The Associated Press that he had not considered using widespread force to try to keep the USSR together because he feared chaos in a nuclear country.

“The country was loaded to the brim with weapons. And it would have immediately pushed the country into a civil war,” he said.

Many of the changes, including the Soviet breakup, bore no resemblance to the transformation that Gorbachev had envisioned when he became the Soviet leader in March 1985.

By the end of his rule he was powerless to halt the whirlwind he had sown. Yet Gorbachev may have had a greater impact on the second half of the 20th century than any other political figure.

“I see myself as a man who started the reforms that were necessary for the country and for Europe and the world,” Gorbachev told The AP in a 1992 interview shortly after he left office.

“I am often asked, would I have started it all again if I had to repeat it? Yes, indeed. And with more persistence and determination,” he said.

Gorbachev won the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the Cold War and spent his later years collecting accolades and awards from all corners of the world. Yet he was widely despised at home.

Russians blamed him for the 1991 implosion of the Soviet Union — a once-fearsome superpower whose territory fractured into 15 separate nations. His former allies deserted him and made him a scapegoat for the country’s troubles.

His run for president in 1996 was a national joke, and he polled less than 1% of the vote.

In 1997, he resorted to making a TV ad for Pizza Hut to earn money for his charitable foundation. His former allies deserted him and made him a scapegoat for the country’s troubles.

“In the ad, he should take a pizza, divide it into 15 slices like he divided up our country, and then show how to put it back together again,” quipped Anatoly Lukyanov, a one-time Gorbachev supporter.

Gorbachev never set out to dismantle the Soviet system. What he wanted to do was improve it.

Soon after taking power, Gorbachev began a campaign to end his country’s economic and political stagnation, using “glasnost” or openness, to help achieve his goal of “perestroika” or restructuring.

In his memoirs, he said he had long been frustrated that in a country with immense natural resources, tens of millions were living in poverty.

“Our society was stifled in the grip of a bureaucratic command system,” Gorbachev wrote. “Doomed to serve ideology and bear the heavy burden of the arms race, it was strained to the utmost.”

Once he began, one move led to another: He freed political prisoners, allowed open debate and multi-candidate elections, gave his countrymen freedom to travel, halted religious oppression, reduced nuclear arsenals, established closer ties with the West and did not resist the fall of Communist regimes in Eastern European satellite states.

But the forces he unleashed quickly escaped his control.

Long-suppressed ethnic tensions flared, sparking wars and unrest in trouble spots such as the southern Caucasus region. Strikes and labor unrest followed price increases and shortages of consumer goods.

In one of the low points of his tenure, Gorbachev sanctioned a crackdown on the restive Baltic republics in early 1991.

The violence turned many intellectuals and reformers against him. Competitive elections also produced a new crop of populist politicians who challenged Gorbachev’s policies and authority.

Chief among them was his former protege and eventual nemesis, Boris Yeltsin, who became Russia’s first president.

“The process of renovating this country and bringing about fundamental changes in the international community proved to be much more complex than originally anticipated,” Gorbachev told the nation as he stepped down.

“However, let us acknowledge what has been achieved so far. Society has acquired freedom; it has been freed politically and spiritually. And this is the most important achievement, which we have not fully come to grips with in part because we still have not learned how to use our freedom.”

There was little in Gorbachev’s childhood to hint at the pivotal role he would play on the world stage. On many levels, he had a typical Soviet upbringing in a typical Russian village. But it was a childhood blessed with unusual strokes of good fortune.

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was born March 2, 1931, in the village of Privolnoye in southern Russia. Both his grandfathers were peasants, collective farm chairmen and members of the Communist Party, as was his father.

Despite stellar party credentials, Gorbachev’s family did not emerge unscathed from the terror unleashed by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin: Both grandfathers were arrested and imprisoned for allegedly anti-Soviet activities.

But, rare in that period, both were eventually freed. In 1941, when Gorbachev was 10, his father went off to war, along with most of the other men from Privolnoye.

Meanwhile, the Nazis pushed across the western steppes in their blitzkrieg against the Soviet Union; they occupied Privolnoye for five months.

When the war was over, young Gorbachev was one of the few village boys whose father returned. By age 15, Gorbachev was helping his father drive a combine harvester after school and during the region’s blistering, dusty summers.

His performance earned him the order of the Red Banner of Labor, an unusual distinction for a 17-year-old. That prize and the party background of his parents helped him land admission in 1950 to the country’s top university, Moscow State.

There, he met his wife, Raisa Maximovna Titorenko, and joined the Communist Party. The award and his family’s credentials also helped him overcome the disgrace of his grandfathers’ arrests, which were overlooked in light of his exemplary Communist conduct.

In his memoirs, Gorbachev described himself as something of a maverick as he advanced through the party ranks, sometimes bursting out with criticism of the Soviet system and its leaders.

His early career coincided with the “thaw” begun by Nikita Khrushchev. As a young Communist propaganda official, he was tasked with explaining the 20th Party Congress that revealed Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s repression of millions to local party activists. He said he was met first by “deathly silence,” then disbelief.

“They said: ‘We don’t believe it. It can’t be. You want to blame everything on Stalin now that he’s dead,’” he told The Associated Press in a 2006 interview.

He was a true if unorthodox believer in socialism. He was elected to the powerful party Central Committee in 1971, took over Soviet agricultural policy in 1978, and became a full Politburo member in 1980.

Along the way he was able to travel to the West, to Belgium, Germany, France, Italy and Canada. Those trips had a profound effect on his thinking, shaking his belief in the superiority of Soviet-style socialism.

“The question haunted me: Why was the standard of living in our country lower than in other developed countries?” he recalled in his memoirs. “It seemed that our aged leaders were not especially worried about our undeniably lower living standards, our unsatisfactory way of life, and our falling behind in the field of advanced technologies.”

But Gorbachev had to wait his turn. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev died in 1982, and was succeeded by two other geriatric leaders: Yuri Andropov, Gorbachev’s mentor, and Konstantin Chernenko.

It wasn’t until March 1985, when Chernenko died, that the party finally chose a younger man to lead the country: Gorbachev. He was 54 years old.

His tenure was filled with rocky periods, including a poorly conceived anti-alcohol campaign, the Soviet military withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

But starting in November 1985, Gorbachev began a series of attention-grabbing summit meetings with world leaders, especially U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, which led to unprecedented, deep reductions in the American and Soviet nuclear arsenals.

After years of watching a parade of stodgy leaders in the Kremlin, Western leaders practically swooned over the charming, vigorous Gorbachev and his stylish, brainy wife. But perceptions were very different at home. It was the first time since the death of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin that the wife of a Soviet leader had played such a public role, and many Russians found Raisa Gorbachev showy and arrogant.

Although the rest of the world benefited from the changes Gorbachev wrought, the rickety Soviet economy collapsed in the process, bringing with it tremendous economic hardship for the country’s 290 million people.

In the final days of the Soviet Union, the economic decline accelerated into a steep skid. Hyper-inflation robbed most older people of their life’s savings. Factories shut down. Bread lines formed.

And popular hatred for Gorbachev and his wife Raisa grew. But the couple won sympathy in summer 1999 when it was revealed that Raisa Gorbachev was dying of leukemia.

During her final days, Gorbachev spoke daily with television reporters, and the lofty-sounding, wooden politician of old was suddenly seen as an emotional family man surrendering to deep grief.

Gorbachev worked on the Gorbachev Foundation, which he created to address global priorities in the post-Cold War period, and with the Green Cross foundation, which was formed in 1993 to help cultivate “a more harmonious relationship between humans and the environment.”

Gorbachev took the helm of the small United Social Democratic Party in 2000 in hopes it could fill the vacuum left by the Communist Party, which he said had failed to reform into a modern leftist party after the breakup of the Soviet Union. He resigned from the chairmanship in 2004.

He continued to comment on Russian politics as a senior statesman — even if many of his countrymen were no longer interested in what he had to say.

“The crisis in our country will continue for some time, possibly leading to even greater upheaval,” Gorbachev wrote in a memoir in 1996. “But Russia has irrevocably chosen the path of freedom, and no one can make it turn back to totalitarianism.”

Gorbachev veered between criticism and mild praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been assailed for backtracking on the democratic achievements of the Gorbachev and Yeltsin eras.

He said Putin had done much to restore stability and prestige to Russia after the tumultuous decade following the Soviet collapse. He did, however, protest growing limitations on media freedom, and in 2006 bought one of Russia’s last investigative newspapers, Novaya Gazeta, with a businessman associate.

“We should — this is one of our goals — promote the newspaper’s qualitative development in the interests of democratic values,” he said, tacitly criticizing the Kremlin’s efforts to bring Novaya Gazeta and other independent media outlets to heel.

Gorbachev ventured into other new areas in his 70s, winning awards and kudos around the world. He won a Grammy in 2004 along with former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Italian actress Sophia Loren for their recording of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, and the United Nations named him a Champion of the Earth in 2006 for his environmental advocacy.

Gorbachev had a daughter, Irina, and two granddaughters.

The official news agency Tass reported that Gorbachev will be buried at Moscow’s Novodevichy cemetery next to his wife.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/8/1661895504846.png" alt="A quarter-century after the Soviet Union collapsed, Gorbachev told The Associated Press that he had not considered using widespread force to try to keep the USSR together because he feared chaos in a nuclear country." />
 <figcaption>A quarter-century after the Soviet Union collapsed, Gorbachev told The Associated Press that he had not considered using widespread force to try to keep the USSR together because he feared chaos in a nuclear country.</figcaption>
 </figure>MOSCOW (AP) — Mikhail Gorbachev, who as the last leader of the Soviet Union waged a losing battle to salvage a crumbling empire but produced extraordinary reforms that led to the end of the Cold War, died Tuesday. He was 91.The Central Clinical Hospital said in a statement that Gorbachev died after a long illness. No other details were given.Though in power less than seven years, Gorbachev unleashed a breathtaking series of changes. But they quickly overtook him and resulted in the collapse of the authoritarian Soviet state, the freeing of Eastern European nations from Russian domination and the end of decades of East-West nuclear confrontation.His decline was humiliating. His power hopelessly sapped by an attempted coup against him in August 1991, he spent his last months in office watching republic after republic declare independence until he resigned on Dec. 25, 1991. The Soviet Union wrote itself into oblivion a day later.A quarter-century after the collapse, Gorbachev told The Associated Press that he had not considered using widespread force to try to keep the USSR together because he feared chaos in a nuclear country.“The country was loaded to the brim with weapons. And it would have immediately pushed the country into a civil war,” he said.Many of the changes, including the Soviet breakup, bore no resemblance to the transformation that Gorbachev had envisioned when he became the Soviet leader in March 1985.By the end of his rule he was powerless to halt the whirlwind he had sown. Yet Gorbachev may have had a greater impact on the second half of the 20th century than any other political figure.“I see myself as a man who started the reforms that were necessary for the country and for Europe and the world,” Gorbachev told The AP in a 1992 interview shortly after he left office.“I am often asked, would I have started it all again if I had to repeat it? Yes, indeed. And with more persistence and determination,” he said.Gorbachev won the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the Cold War and spent his later years collecting accolades and awards from all corners of the world. Yet he was widely despised at home.Russians blamed him for the 1991 implosion of the Soviet Union — a once-fearsome superpower whose territory fractured into 15 separate nations. His former allies deserted him and made him a scapegoat for the country’s troubles.His run for president in 1996 was a national joke, and he polled less than 1% of the vote.In 1997, he resorted to making a TV ad for Pizza Hut to earn money for his charitable foundation. His former allies deserted him and made him a scapegoat for the country’s troubles.“In the ad, he should take a pizza, divide it into 15 slices like he divided up our country, and then show how to put it back together again,” quipped Anatoly Lukyanov, a one-time Gorbachev supporter.Gorbachev never set out to dismantle the Soviet system. What he wanted to do was improve it.Soon after taking power, Gorbachev began a campaign to end his country’s economic and political stagnation, using “glasnost” or openness, to help achieve his goal of “perestroika” or restructuring.In his memoirs, he said he had long been frustrated that in a country with immense natural resources, tens of millions were living in poverty.“Our society was stifled in the grip of a bureaucratic command system,” Gorbachev wrote. “Doomed to serve ideology and bear the heavy burden of the arms race, it was strained to the utmost.”Once he began, one move led to another: He freed political prisoners, allowed open debate and multi-candidate elections, gave his countrymen freedom to travel, halted religious oppression, reduced nuclear arsenals, established closer ties with the West and did not resist the fall of Communist regimes in Eastern European satellite states.But the forces he unleashed quickly escaped his control.Long-suppressed ethnic tensions flared, sparking wars and unrest in trouble spots such as the southern Caucasus region. Strikes and labor unrest followed price increases and shortages of consumer goods.In one of the low points of his tenure, Gorbachev sanctioned a crackdown on the restive Baltic republics in early 1991.The violence turned many intellectuals and reformers against him. Competitive elections also produced a new crop of populist politicians who challenged Gorbachev’s policies and authority.Chief among them was his former protege and eventual nemesis, Boris Yeltsin, who became Russia’s first president.“The process of renovating this country and bringing about fundamental changes in the international community proved to be much more complex than originally anticipated,” Gorbachev told the nation as he stepped down.“However, let us acknowledge what has been achieved so far. Society has acquired freedom; it has been freed politically and spiritually. And this is the most important achievement, which we have not fully come to grips with in part because we still have not learned how to use our freedom.”There was little in Gorbachev’s childhood to hint at the pivotal role he would play on the world stage. On many levels, he had a typical Soviet upbringing in a typical Russian village. But it was a childhood blessed with unusual strokes of good fortune.Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was born March 2, 1931, in the village of Privolnoye in southern Russia. Both his grandfathers were peasants, collective farm chairmen and members of the Communist Party, as was his father.Despite stellar party credentials, Gorbachev’s family did not emerge unscathed from the terror unleashed by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin: Both grandfathers were arrested and imprisoned for allegedly anti-Soviet activities.But, rare in that period, both were eventually freed. In 1941, when Gorbachev was 10, his father went off to war, along with most of the other men from Privolnoye.Meanwhile, the Nazis pushed across the western steppes in their blitzkrieg against the Soviet Union; they occupied Privolnoye for five months.When the war was over, young Gorbachev was one of the few village boys whose father returned. By age 15, Gorbachev was helping his father drive a combine harvester after school and during the region’s blistering, dusty summers.His performance earned him the order of the Red Banner of Labor, an unusual distinction for a 17-year-old. That prize and the party background of his parents helped him land admission in 1950 to the country’s top university, Moscow State.There, he met his wife, Raisa Maximovna Titorenko, and joined the Communist Party. The award and his family’s credentials also helped him overcome the disgrace of his grandfathers’ arrests, which were overlooked in light of his exemplary Communist conduct.In his memoirs, Gorbachev described himself as something of a maverick as he advanced through the party ranks, sometimes bursting out with criticism of the Soviet system and its leaders.His early career coincided with the “thaw” begun by Nikita Khrushchev. As a young Communist propaganda official, he was tasked with explaining the 20th Party Congress that revealed Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s repression of millions to local party activists. He said he was met first by “deathly silence,” then disbelief.“They said: ‘We don’t believe it. It can’t be. You want to blame everything on Stalin now that he’s dead,’” he told The Associated Press in a 2006 interview.He was a true if unorthodox believer in socialism. He was elected to the powerful party Central Committee in 1971, took over Soviet agricultural policy in 1978, and became a full Politburo member in 1980.Along the way he was able to travel to the West, to Belgium, Germany, France, Italy and Canada. Those trips had a profound effect on his thinking, shaking his belief in the superiority of Soviet-style socialism.“The question haunted me: Why was the standard of living in our country lower than in other developed countries?” he recalled in his memoirs. “It seemed that our aged leaders were not especially worried about our undeniably lower living standards, our unsatisfactory way of life, and our falling behind in the field of advanced technologies.”But Gorbachev had to wait his turn. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev died in 1982, and was succeeded by two other geriatric leaders: Yuri Andropov, Gorbachev’s mentor, and Konstantin Chernenko.It wasn’t until March 1985, when Chernenko died, that the party finally chose a younger man to lead the country: Gorbachev. He was 54 years old.His tenure was filled with rocky periods, including a poorly conceived anti-alcohol campaign, the Soviet military withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.But starting in November 1985, Gorbachev began a series of attention-grabbing summit meetings with world leaders, especially U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, which led to unprecedented, deep reductions in the American and Soviet nuclear arsenals.After years of watching a parade of stodgy leaders in the Kremlin, Western leaders practically swooned over the charming, vigorous Gorbachev and his stylish, brainy wife. But perceptions were very different at home. It was the first time since the death of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin that the wife of a Soviet leader had played such a public role, and many Russians found Raisa Gorbachev showy and arrogant.Although the rest of the world benefited from the changes Gorbachev wrought, the rickety Soviet economy collapsed in the process, bringing with it tremendous economic hardship for the country’s 290 million people.In the final days of the Soviet Union, the economic decline accelerated into a steep skid. Hyper-inflation robbed most older people of their life’s savings. Factories shut down. Bread lines formed.And popular hatred for Gorbachev and his wife Raisa grew. But the couple won sympathy in summer 1999 when it was revealed that Raisa Gorbachev was dying of leukemia.During her final days, Gorbachev spoke daily with television reporters, and the lofty-sounding, wooden politician of old was suddenly seen as an emotional family man surrendering to deep grief.Gorbachev worked on the Gorbachev Foundation, which he created to address global priorities in the post-Cold War period, and with the Green Cross foundation, which was formed in 1993 to help cultivate “a more harmonious relationship between humans and the environment.”Gorbachev took the helm of the small United Social Democratic Party in 2000 in hopes it could fill the vacuum left by the Communist Party, which he said had failed to reform into a modern leftist party after the breakup of the Soviet Union. He resigned from the chairmanship in 2004.He continued to comment on Russian politics as a senior statesman — even if many of his countrymen were no longer interested in what he had to say.“The crisis in our country will continue for some time, possibly leading to even greater upheaval,” Gorbachev wrote in a memoir in 1996. “But Russia has irrevocably chosen the path of freedom, and no one can make it turn back to totalitarianism.”Gorbachev veered between criticism and mild praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been assailed for backtracking on the democratic achievements of the Gorbachev and Yeltsin eras.He said Putin had done much to restore stability and prestige to Russia after the tumultuous decade following the Soviet collapse. He did, however, protest growing limitations on media freedom, and in 2006 bought one of Russia’s last investigative newspapers, Novaya Gazeta, with a businessman associate.“We should — this is one of our goals — promote the newspaper’s qualitative development in the interests of democratic values,” he said, tacitly criticizing the Kremlin’s efforts to bring Novaya Gazeta and other independent media outlets to heel.Gorbachev ventured into other new areas in his 70s, winning awards and kudos around the world. He won a Grammy in 2004 along with former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Italian actress Sophia Loren for their recording of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, and the United Nations named him a Champion of the Earth in 2006 for his environmental advocacy.Gorbachev had a daughter, Irina, and two granddaughters.The official news agency Tass reported that Gorbachev will be buried at Moscow’s Novodevichy cemetery next to his wife.___

Mikhail Gorbachev, who steered Soviet breakup, dead at 91

Marcia Kaye (Hiebert) Goentzel, 76, of Valley Center, Kansas, passed away on Wednesday, June 1, 2022, finally succumbing to an infection after having won the battle with so many over her years. She was surrounded by loving family and friends.

Marcia was born in Omaha, Nebraska on August 9, 1945, to Lando and Katherine (Nickel) Hiebert. She was raised with an older brother, Rolyn (Rolly), and younger sister, Ruth, in Hillsboro, Kansas. She met James Goentzel at a PTA meeting, as Marcia’s mother taught in his Lehigh school district. They were married on May 30, 1964, in Hillsboro, Kansas. They made their home in Wichita, Kansas, but travelled and lived in numerous communities from Colorado to Tennessee while Jim was building Pizza Huts. Later in life they moved to a home in Valley Center where Jim still resides. Marcia has considered Oxford Grand Assisted Living in Wichita her home for the past several years. She loved to travel, especially with Jim and her family, whether to a special spot in Kansas or to an international city, and she made the most of each opportunity even when mobility was difficult.

Marcia attended Tabor College where accounting courses came naturally. She became adept at using mainframe computers to track numbers in early positions at Garvey Grain and Love Box Company. Marcia then had a meaningful role with the Olive W. Garvey Center for the Improvement of Human Functioning. She also joined Jim in the construction business. Jim managed the jobs and Marcia developed a comprehensive job costing method to support a series of family-owned construction companies in Wichita – Custom Care Builders, Classic Builders, and Jim Goentzel Construction. With the rise of personal computers, Marcia became skilled at implementing and supporting various software systems. She established MKG Systems in 1985 to formally engage clients and later co-founded Professional Software, Inc, which won awards for support excellence. In addition, she developed a robust accounting system to support several investment companies founded with close colleagues, having names like P&amp;F (standing for Profit &amp; Fun). Marcia also served the construction sector as President of the Wichita Area Builders Auxiliary.

Marcia joyfully pursued many other areas of interest. An active swimmer, she served for several years as a swimming instructor with the YMCA. Later in life she proudly taught her grandchildren how to swim. As an artist, Marcia frequently created personal sketches and paintings while importantly noting the time and location for the moment of inspiration. She loved sewing and many creative arts, and she frequented fabric and crafts stores over the years in pursuit of quilting fabric, beads for jewelry-making, flowers for a new arrangement, holiday decorations to liven up a shared space, and, of course, the perfect hot glue gun. She was particularly interested in creating themed decorations and arranging flowers with showcases starting at home, expanding to model homes, and concluding at Oxford Grand Assisted Living where she was designated Decorating Diva. Later in life Marcia curated her favorite art pieces and pictures of decorated rooms with meaningful notes as to why each was special.

Marcia served in a variety of roles in her faith communities. At the First Mennonite Brethren Church (now Ridgepoint Church), where she was a member, she led memorable Sunday School and Vacation Bible School classes over the years. She served on the Building Committee when the church moved from 1750 N. Gow to 8000 W. 21st. She helped to stage church dramas and incorporate dramatic readings in worship services. Bible Study Fellowship was an integral part of Marcia’s faith journey. Later in life she cherished the opportunity to regularly give sermons for the Community Church at Oxford Grand Assisted Living.

Marcia is preceded in death by her parents, Lando and Katherine Hiebert; her stepfather Aaron Becker; her brother Rolyn Hiebert; Jim’s parents Clarence and Bertha Goentzel; Jim’s brothers Quint and Howard Goentzel; and son-in-law Mark Godbold.

Those left to cherish Marcia’s memory include her husband of 58 years, Jim Goentzel; son Jarrod Goentzel and his wife Laura VanderHart; daughter Melonie Godbold; grandchildren Hallie Godbold, Ian Goentzel, Tysen Godbold, and Samuel Goentzel; sister Ruth Hiebert Dick and her husband Steve; sister-in-law Sue Hiebert, stepbrothers Wilbert and Arlowe Becker, cousins, nieces, nephews, other relatives, and many dear friends.

There will be an opportunity to visit with family and friends at Ridgepoint Church (8000 W. 21st St, Wichita, KS 67205) on Sunday, June 12, from 5-7pm. The funeral/memorial service will be held at the same location on Monday, June 13, 2022 at 11am, with lunch following the service.

IN LIEU OF FLOWERS,&nbsp;Memorial donations&nbsp;for Marcia Goentzel can be directed to the Lando Hiebert Endowed Scholarship Fund at Tabor College, either online (<a href="https://tabor.edu/alumni-friends/give-online">https://tabor.edu/alumni-friends/give-online</a>) or via check to the Tabor College Advancement Office (400 S Jefferson, Hillsboro, KS 67063). Simply note Marcia Goentzel Memorial with the donation.

Baker Funeral Home Valley Center is handling arrangements. Condolences may be left for the family at www.bakerfhvc.com.

Marcia Kaye (Hiebert) Goentzel, 76, of Valley Center, Kansas, passed away on Wednesday, June 1, 2022, finally succumbing to an infection after having won the battle with so many over her years. She was surrounded by loving family and friends.Marcia was born in Omaha, Nebraska on August 9, 1945, to Lando and Katherine (Nickel) Hiebert. She was raised with an older brother, Rolyn (Rolly), and younger sister, Ruth, in Hillsboro, Kansas. She met James Goentzel at a PTA meeting, as Marcia’s mother taught in his Lehigh school district. They were married on May 30, 1964, in Hillsboro, Kansas. They made their home in Wichita, Kansas, but travelled and lived in numerous communities from Colorado to Tennessee while Jim was building Pizza Huts. Later in life they moved to a home in Valley Center where Jim still resides. Marcia has considered Oxford Grand Assisted Living in Wichita her home for the past several years. She loved to travel, especially with Jim and her family, whether to a special spot in Kansas or to an international city, and she made the most of each opportunity even when mobility was difficult.Marcia attended Tabor College where accounting courses came naturally. She became adept at using mainframe computers to track numbers in early positions at Garvey Grain and Love Box Company. Marcia then had a meaningful role with the Olive W. Garvey Center for the Improvement of Human Functioning. She also joined Jim in the construction business. Jim managed the jobs and Marcia developed a comprehensive job costing method to support a series of family-owned construction companies in Wichita – Custom Care Builders, Classic Builders, and Jim Goentzel Construction. With the rise of personal computers, Marcia became skilled at implementing and supporting various software systems. She established MKG Systems in 1985 to formally engage clients and later co-founded Professional Software, Inc, which won awards for support excellence. In addition, she developed a robust accounting system to support several investment companies founded with close colleagues, having names like P&amp;F (standing for Profit &amp; Fun). Marcia also served the construction sector as President of the Wichita Area Builders Auxiliary.Marcia joyfully pursued many other areas of interest. An active swimmer, she served for several years as a swimming instructor with the YMCA. Later in life she proudly taught her grandchildren how to swim. As an artist, Marcia frequently created personal sketches and paintings while importantly noting the time and location for the moment of inspiration. She loved sewing and many creative arts, and she frequented fabric and crafts stores over the years in pursuit of quilting fabric, beads for jewelry-making, flowers for a new arrangement, holiday decorations to liven up a shared space, and, of course, the perfect hot glue gun. She was particularly interested in creating themed decorations and arranging flowers with showcases starting at home, expanding to model homes, and concluding at Oxford Grand Assisted Living where she was designated Decorating Diva. Later in life Marcia curated her favorite art pieces and pictures of decorated rooms with meaningful notes as to why each was special.Marcia served in a variety of roles in her faith communities. At the First Mennonite Brethren Church (now Ridgepoint Church), where she was a member, she led memorable Sunday School and Vacation Bible School classes over the years. She served on the Building Committee when the church moved from 1750 N. Gow to 8000 W. 21st. She helped to stage church dramas and incorporate dramatic readings in worship services. Bible Study Fellowship was an integral part of Marcia’s faith journey. Later in life she cherished the opportunity to regularly give sermons for the Community Church at Oxford Grand Assisted Living.Marcia is preceded in death by her parents, Lando and Katherine Hiebert; her stepfather Aaron Becker; her brother Rolyn Hiebert; Jim’s parents Clarence and Bertha Goentzel; Jim’s brothers Quint and Howard Goentzel; and son-in-law Mark Godbold.Those left to cherish Marcia’s memory include her husband of 58 years, Jim Goentzel; son Jarrod Goentzel and his wife Laura VanderHart; daughter Melonie Godbold; grandchildren Hallie Godbold, Ian Goentzel, Tysen Godbold, and Samuel Goentzel; sister Ruth Hiebert Dick and her husband Steve; sister-in-law Sue Hiebert, stepbrothers Wilbert and Arlowe Becker, cousins, nieces, nephews, other relatives, and many dear friends.There will be an opportunity to visit with family and friends at Ridgepoint Church (8000 W. 21st St, Wichita, KS 67205) on Sunday, June 12, from 5-7pm. The funeral/memorial service will be held at the same location on Monday, June 13, 2022 at 11am, with lunch following the service.IN LIEU OF FLOWERS,&nbsp;Memorial donations&nbsp;for Marcia Goentzel can be directed to the Lando Hiebert Endowed Scholarship Fund at Tabor College, either online (<a href="https://tabor.edu/alumni-friends/give-online">https://tabor.edu/alumni-friends/give-online</a>) or via check to the Tabor College Advancement Office (400 S Jefferson, Hillsboro, KS 67063). Simply note Marcia Goentzel Memorial with the donation.Baker Funeral Home Valley Center is handling arrangements. Condolences may be left for the family at www.bakerfhvc.com.

Marcia Kaye (Hiebert) Goentzel |1945-2022|

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The state of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/kansas">Kansas</a>&nbsp;must pay former pizza executive Gene Bicknell more than $63 million to settle a long-running dispute over his tax bill.

The court ruled on Friday that Bicknell was a&nbsp;Florida&nbsp;resident in 2005 and 2006 when he sold NPC International, which owned more than 800 Pizza Hut locations around the world.

The Kansas Department of Revenue argued the Bicknell, a longtime resident of Pittsburg, set up a residence in Florida to avoid paying taxes on the sale to Kansas. In 2010, it ordered him to pay $42 million to the state.

The case wound through several courts over the years before being taken up by the state Supreme Court, which sided with Bicknell, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported.

“These findings support its legal conclusion that Gene was domiciled in Florida in 2005 and 2006,” Justice K.J. Wall Jr., wrote in the opinion.

In 2020, Bicknell said Kansas owed him $63 million — his original tax bill plus interest.

“The Department of Revenue’s approach has always felt like extortion, forcing me and my family to endure hundreds of interrogatories, depositions, three trials, three appeals, 15 years of attorney time, and appearances before an agency board that was a kangaroo court,” Bicknell said in a statement Friday.

The revenue department is reviewing the court's 75-page decision, spokesman Zach Fletcher said.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The state of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/kansas">Kansas</a>&nbsp;must pay former pizza executive Gene Bicknell more than $63 million to settle a long-running dispute over his tax bill.The court ruled on Friday that Bicknell was a&nbsp;Florida&nbsp;resident in 2005 and 2006 when he sold NPC International, which owned more than 800 Pizza Hut locations around the world.The Kansas Department of Revenue argued the Bicknell, a longtime resident of Pittsburg, set up a residence in Florida to avoid paying taxes on the sale to Kansas. In 2010, it ordered him to pay $42 million to the state.The case wound through several courts over the years before being taken up by the state Supreme Court, which sided with Bicknell, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported.“These findings support its legal conclusion that Gene was domiciled in Florida in 2005 and 2006,” Justice K.J. Wall Jr., wrote in the opinion.In 2020, Bicknell said Kansas owed him $63 million — his original tax bill plus interest.“The Department of Revenue’s approach has always felt like extortion, forcing me and my family to endure hundreds of interrogatories, depositions, three trials, three appeals, 15 years of attorney time, and appearances before an agency board that was a kangaroo court,” Bicknell said in a statement Friday.The revenue department is reviewing the court's 75-page decision, spokesman Zach Fletcher said.

Kansas ordered to pay $63 million to former pizza magnate

Larry Dean Doskocil, 90, died April 21, 2022, at Hospice House.&nbsp; He was born May 2, 1931, in Pratt, to Frank and Mary (Pierpoint) Doskocil.

Larry graduated from Pratt High School in 1949, and received his Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Southern Nazarene University, Bethany, OK, after a two-year enlistment in the Army.&nbsp; Larry’s interests were many and varied but his passions revolved around his church, his businesses, and his family.&nbsp; Most notably, Larry founded Doskocil Food Companies in South Hutchinson, KS which eventually became the dominant supplier of meat toppings for pizza chains such as Pizza Hut, Godfather’s Pizza, Domino’s Pizza and ShowBiz Pizza.

In 1957, Larry married Jacquelin L. Hoxsey.&nbsp; She died May 16, 1989.&nbsp; On June 7, 1991, he married Joan Crew, in Olathe.

Larry is survived by:&nbsp; his wife of over 30 years, Joan Doskocil of Hutchinson; children, Rogena “Gena” Jennings (Steve) of Moundridge and Justin Doskocil (Nicole) of Birmingham, AL; bonus sons, Bob Crew (Sharon) of Olathe and Gregory Crew (Wendi) of Brooksville, FL; sisters, Beth McFall (Pat) of Wichita and Nell Rogene McCawley of Hutchinson; grandchildren, Austin Jacques, Tymber Allen, Hunter Armbrister, Taylor “TJ” Jacques, and Lane Jacques; great-grandchildren, Reese Allen, Beau Allen, Waylynn Armbrister, Walker Armbrister, and Wrenley Jacques; bonus grandchildren, Melissa Ladden, Julia “Jill” Heer, and Colton Captain; and bonus great-grandchildren, Nolan and Emma Heer.&nbsp;

He was preceded in death by his parents, and brother-in-law, Jack McCawley.

Funeral service will be 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, April 27, 2022, at First Church of the Nazarene, 4290 N. Monroe, Hutchinson.&nbsp; Private family burial will be in Elmer Cemetery.&nbsp; Friends may call from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday and 9:00 to 3:00 p.m. Tuesday at Elliott Mortuary.&nbsp; The family will greet friends from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. Tuesday at First Church of the Nazarene.

In lieu of flowers, memorials are suggested to First Church of the Nazarene, in care of Elliott Mortuary, 1219 N. Main, Hutchinson, KS&nbsp; 67501.

Larry Dean Doskocil, 90, died April 21, 2022, at Hospice House.&nbsp; He was born May 2, 1931, in Pratt, to Frank and Mary (Pierpoint) Doskocil.Larry graduated from Pratt High School in 1949, and received his Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Southern Nazarene University, Bethany, OK, after a two-year enlistment in the Army.&nbsp; Larry’s interests were many and varied but his passions revolved around his church, his businesses, and his family.&nbsp; Most notably, Larry founded Doskocil Food Companies in South Hutchinson, KS which eventually became the dominant supplier of meat toppings for pizza chains such as Pizza Hut, Godfather’s Pizza, Domino’s Pizza and ShowBiz Pizza.In 1957, Larry married Jacquelin L. Hoxsey.&nbsp; She died May 16, 1989.&nbsp; On June 7, 1991, he married Joan Crew, in Olathe.Larry is survived by:&nbsp; his wife of over 30 years, Joan Doskocil of Hutchinson; children, Rogena “Gena” Jennings (Steve) of Moundridge and Justin Doskocil (Nicole) of Birmingham, AL; bonus sons, Bob Crew (Sharon) of Olathe and Gregory Crew (Wendi) of Brooksville, FL; sisters, Beth McFall (Pat) of Wichita and Nell Rogene McCawley of Hutchinson; grandchildren, Austin Jacques, Tymber Allen, Hunter Armbrister, Taylor “TJ” Jacques, and Lane Jacques; great-grandchildren, Reese Allen, Beau Allen, Waylynn Armbrister, Walker Armbrister, and Wrenley Jacques; bonus grandchildren, Melissa Ladden, Julia “Jill” Heer, and Colton Captain; and bonus great-grandchildren, Nolan and Emma Heer.&nbsp;He was preceded in death by his parents, and brother-in-law, Jack McCawley.Funeral service will be 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, April 27, 2022, at First Church of the Nazarene, 4290 N. Monroe, Hutchinson.&nbsp; Private family burial will be in Elmer Cemetery.&nbsp; Friends may call from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday and 9:00 to 3:00 p.m. Tuesday at Elliott Mortuary.&nbsp; The family will greet friends from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. Tuesday at First Church of the Nazarene.In lieu of flowers, memorials are suggested to First Church of the Nazarene, in care of Elliott Mortuary, 1219 N. Main, Hutchinson, KS&nbsp; 67501.

Larry Dean Doskocil |1931-2022|

Oklahoma State (20-8, 5-1 Big 12) vs.&nbsp;Wichita State (12-15, 1-2 American) Tuesday, April&nbsp;5 | 6:00&nbsp;pm | Wichita, Kansas (Eck Stadium) TV: ESPN Plus&nbsp;| Radio: KFH 97.5 FM/1240 AM TBA vs. LHP&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=6250">Jace Miner</a>&nbsp;(0-1, 14.14)

SCENE SETTER:&nbsp;The Shockers return home for a midweek contest against nationally ranked Oklahoma State on Tuesday night at Eck Stadium, the first of three matchups against the Cowboys in 2022.&nbsp; Wichita State enters the matchup with a 12-15 overall record after going 1-2 in the first American Athletic Conference series of the season this past weekend in Houston. The Shockers blanked the Cougars on Friday night behind a brilliant pitching performance from&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=5938">Jace Kaminska</a>, but Houston bounced back to claim the next two games, including a come-from-behind 4-3 win on Sunday. Prior to the two defeats, Wichita State had beaten the Cougars in nine straight games, the longest winning streak for WSU in the all-time series. Wichita State opened the season dropping their first six games, the worst start to a campaign since the 1953 season. The Shockers are coming off a 31-23 season a year ago, including an 18-13 mark in the American Athletic Conference that produced a third-place finish, WSU's best since joining the AAC in 2017. Wichita State is seeking their first appearance in the NCAA tournament since the 2013 season, a regional bid that was later vacated by the NCAA. SHOCKER BASEBALL ON THE RADIO AND ESPN PLUS:&nbsp;KFH 97.5 FM/1240 AM will once again serve as the radio home for all Wichita State baseball broadcasts in 2022. "The Voice of the Shockers" and Pizza Hut Shocker Sports Hall of Famer Mike Kennedy will have the call on Wednesday, with the pregame show beginning approximately 20 minutes prior to first pitch. All WSU home games at Eck Stadium in 2022 will air live on ESPN Plus (WatchESPN.com) with former Shocker All-American pitcher Shane Dennis handling the broadcasting duties. Live audio, in addition to live statistics, will be available for all games at GoShockers.com/listen and ShockerStats.com.&nbsp; SERIES HISTORY:&nbsp;The Shockers and Cowboys will be meeting for the 100th time on Wednesday, with Oklahoma State holding a 62-37 lead in the all-time series. The Cowboys have won eight of the last ten matchups, including a pair of victories at Eck Stadium to open the 2021. Wichita State last triumped in 2018, when the Shockers swept the season series with a 7-5 win in Wichita and a 10-7 victory in Stillwater. Prior to the WSU program's rebirth in 1978, the Shockers were just 2-25 against the Cowboys. The two programs have battled 15 times in postseason play, including a pair of matchups in the College World Series. Wichita State beat the Cowboys in 1982 and 1993. SCOUTING OKLAHOMA STATE:&nbsp;The Cowboys enter the weekend with an overall record of 20-8, including 5-1 in Big 12 play. They suffered their first conference defeat on Sunday at the hands of the Kansas State Wildcats, but have still won 13 of their last 15 games since a 7-6 start. Oklahoma State is a consensus top-10 in this week's polls, checking in at No. 5 according to Perfect Game, No. 6 by D1Baseball, No. 7 by both the NCBWA and USA Today coaches poll, and No. 10 by Collegiate Baseball. The Cowboys are led by strong pitching and defense, with a nation-leading .989 fielding percentage entering play on Wednesday. Opponents are hitting just .222 against Oklahoma State pitching, best in the Big 12, while the Cowboys rank second in the conference in both strikeouts (304) and ERA (3.90). Offensively, Oklahoma State is htting .264 as a team, led by a pair of transfers in Jake Thompson (South Dakota State/Palomar CC/Kentucky) and David Mendham (South Carolina/Connors State CC). The Cowboys are led by head coach Josh Holliday, a former Oklahoma State player who has led OSU to three Super Regionals and one College World Series appearance (2016) in his eight seasons in Stillwater. Josh is the older brother of former MLB All-Star Matt Holliday, who now serves as a volunteer assistant on the Cowboys staff. Oklahoma State was picked second in the Big 12 preseason poll, following a 36-19-1 season in 2021 that ended with a pair of defeats to UC Santa Barbara in the Tuscon regional. STAR TURN:&nbsp;One of the most promising developments for Wichita State's lineup is the improvement of sophomore outfielder&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=5930">Chuck Ingram</a>. After hitting .225 with 34 strikeouts in 89 at-bats a season ago, Ingram has established himself as the Shockers best hitter in 2022, slashing .320/.363/.621. The Kansas City native has an extra-base hit in nine of the last ten games, including all three games of the series in Houston. His two-out, three-run home run in the ninth inning on Friday proved the decisive blow in Wichita State's 4-0 win. CAGING COUGARS:&nbsp;Wichita State Friday night starter&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=5938">Jace Kaminska</a>&nbsp;continued his incredible dominance of Houston over the weekend, fanning a career-best 12 hitters over the course of eight shutout innings. With the win, Kaminska improved to 4-0 in four career starts against the Cougars, and has allowed just two runs in 32.1 total innings (0.56 ERA). He was named the American Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week for his efforts.&nbsp; PRESS THE CLUTCH:&nbsp;Wichita State's recent offensive struggles have been exacerbated by a lack of success in high-leverage situations. The Shockers are hitting just .235 with runners in scoring position, and only .218 with two outs. Meanwhile, opponents are hitting .259 and .242, respectively, in those same two categories.&nbsp; STILL STREAKING:&nbsp;Junior&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=6242">Sawyre Thornhill</a>&nbsp;already has a 19-game hitting streak to his credit during the 2022 season, and has reached base successfully in all 26 games played. He extended the on-base streak with a walk Friday, two doubles Saturday, and both a single and walk in Sunday's series finale. BRILLIANT BYE:<a href="https://goshockers.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=5939">Cameron Bye</a>&nbsp;began the season operating out of the Wichita State bullpen due to an injury in the early spring. He has since worked his way into the weekend rotation as the Sunday starter and put together one of the most dominant stretches for a Shocker pitcher in recent memory. The sophomore right-hander has allowed just a single earned run over 29.0 innings, good for a 0.31 ERA that ranks second in the country. Perhaps just as impressively, Bye has only surrendered 12 hits for an opponent batting average of .122. RUNNING MAN:&nbsp;Outfielder&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=5909">Couper Cornblum</a>&nbsp;has established himself as Wichita State's primary baserunning threat. On a team that has stolen just 21 bases in 29 attempts, Cornblum is now 7-for-7 after setting a new career high on Sunday with three swipes against Creighton. For his career, the sophomore has been successful on 26 of 31 stolen base attempts. LINEUP JUGGLING:<a href="https://goshockers.com/coaches.aspx?rc=905">Eric Wedge</a>&nbsp;continues to tinker with the starting lineup in search of consistent production. Through 27 games, the Shockers have not used the same starters and batting order in consecutive games.&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=5909">Couper Cornblum</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=5930">Chuck Ingram</a>&nbsp;have already started at seven different spots in the batting order, while two others players (<a href="https://goshockers.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=6244">Xavier Casserilla</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=5907">Ross Cadena</a>) have starts at six different spots. SHOCKERS IN THE RPI:&nbsp;Wichita State stands at 117 in the latest RPI rankings following the series loss against Houston, a 20-spot jump after entering the weekend at 137. Upcoming opponent Oklahoma State enters play on Wednesday at 29. Wichita State has played Oklahoma (20), Louisiana Tech (31), Texas State (36), Texas A&amp;M (61) and Creighton (90) and in the non-conference portion of the schedule. NO MINER ACCOMPLISHMENT:&nbsp;Tuesday starter&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=6250">Jace Miner</a>&nbsp;became the eighth different Shocker pitcher to start a game in 2022, six of whom had never started a game at the Division-I level before this season. Entering the game with just 3.0 innings pitched, Miner went 4.0 innings against the Jayhawks, highlighted by a stretch where he retired 10 of 11 hitters from the end of the first inning through the fourth. HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE:&nbsp;Eck Stadium, home of Tyler Field, has consistently been one of the toughest places for opponents to win in its storied history. The Shockers own an all-time home record of 1,272-381-2, including an 862-278-2 mark at Tyler Field (first season 1988). Since taking over as head coach in 2020,&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/coaches.aspx?rc=905">Eric Wedge</a>&nbsp;has put together a 36-13 record at Eck, highlighted by a spotless 10-0 mark during the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign. KEEP IT IN THE FAMILY:&nbsp;Shocker coaches&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/coaches.aspx?rc=905">Eric Wedge</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/coaches.aspx?rc=906">Mike Pelfrey</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/coaches.aspx?rc=907">Mike Sirianni</a>&nbsp;and Director of Operations&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/staff.aspx?staff=1369">Loren Hibbs</a>&nbsp;all have ties to the WSU baseball program. Wedge powered the Shockers to a national championship as the starting catcher in 1989, earning Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year honors along the way. Pelfrey was an All-American starter who ranks second in program history in ERA (2.18) and strikeouts (366). Sirianni was a volunteer assistant coach for the Shockers in 2015 and 2016 before taking the head coaching position at Regis University. Hibbs helped WSU to the program's first-ever CWS appearance in 1982, and still holds the NCAA record for single-season runs scored with 125. ON DECK:&nbsp;The Shockers head back on the road to resume conference play with three games in Greenville against East Carolina.&nbsp; &nbsp;

CLICK HERE to download the Hutch Post mobile app. CLICK HERE to sign up for the daily Hutch Post email news update.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Oklahoma State (20-8, 5-1 Big 12) vs.&nbsp;Wichita State (12-15, 1-2 American) Tuesday, April&nbsp;5 | 6:00&nbsp;pm | Wichita, Kansas (Eck Stadium) TV: ESPN Plus&nbsp;| Radio: KFH 97.5 FM/1240 AM TBA vs. LHP&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=6250">Jace Miner</a>&nbsp;(0-1, 14.14)<ul>
 <li><a href="https://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=34ffbf26-db41-468b-a146-fc792210d3c8" target="_blank">WATCH LIVE</a></li><li><a href="https://goshockers.com/watch/?Live=5056&amp;type=Live" target="_blank">LISTEN LIVE</a></li><li><a href="http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=398790" target="_blank">LIVE STATS</a></li>
 </ul>SCENE SETTER:&nbsp;The Shockers return home for a midweek contest against nationally ranked Oklahoma State on Tuesday night at Eck Stadium, the first of three matchups against the Cowboys in 2022.&nbsp; Wichita State enters the matchup with a 12-15 overall record after going 1-2 in the first American Athletic Conference series of the season this past weekend in Houston. The Shockers blanked the Cougars on Friday night behind a brilliant pitching performance from&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=5938">Jace Kaminska</a>, but Houston bounced back to claim the next two games, including a come-from-behind 4-3 win on Sunday. Prior to the two defeats, Wichita State had beaten the Cougars in nine straight games, the longest winning streak for WSU in the all-time series. Wichita State opened the season dropping their first six games, the worst start to a campaign since the 1953 season. The Shockers are coming off a 31-23 season a year ago, including an 18-13 mark in the American Athletic Conference that produced a third-place finish, WSU's best since joining the AAC in 2017. Wichita State is seeking their first appearance in the NCAA tournament since the 2013 season, a regional bid that was later vacated by the NCAA. SHOCKER BASEBALL ON THE RADIO AND ESPN PLUS:&nbsp;KFH 97.5 FM/1240 AM will once again serve as the radio home for all Wichita State baseball broadcasts in 2022. "The Voice of the Shockers" and Pizza Hut Shocker Sports Hall of Famer Mike Kennedy will have the call on Wednesday, with the pregame show beginning approximately 20 minutes prior to first pitch. All WSU home games at Eck Stadium in 2022 will air live on ESPN Plus (WatchESPN.com) with former Shocker All-American pitcher Shane Dennis handling the broadcasting duties. Live audio, in addition to live statistics, will be available for all games at GoShockers.com/listen and ShockerStats.com.&nbsp; SERIES HISTORY:&nbsp;The Shockers and Cowboys will be meeting for the 100th time on Wednesday, with Oklahoma State holding a 62-37 lead in the all-time series. The Cowboys have won eight of the last ten matchups, including a pair of victories at Eck Stadium to open the 2021. Wichita State last triumped in 2018, when the Shockers swept the season series with a 7-5 win in Wichita and a 10-7 victory in Stillwater. Prior to the WSU program's rebirth in 1978, the Shockers were just 2-25 against the Cowboys. The two programs have battled 15 times in postseason play, including a pair of matchups in the College World Series. Wichita State beat the Cowboys in 1982 and 1993. SCOUTING OKLAHOMA STATE:&nbsp;The Cowboys enter the weekend with an overall record of 20-8, including 5-1 in Big 12 play. They suffered their first conference defeat on Sunday at the hands of the Kansas State Wildcats, but have still won 13 of their last 15 games since a 7-6 start. Oklahoma State is a consensus top-10 in this week's polls, checking in at No. 5 according to Perfect Game, No. 6 by D1Baseball, No. 7 by both the NCBWA and USA Today coaches poll, and No. 10 by Collegiate Baseball. The Cowboys are led by strong pitching and defense, with a nation-leading .989 fielding percentage entering play on Wednesday. Opponents are hitting just .222 against Oklahoma State pitching, best in the Big 12, while the Cowboys rank second in the conference in both strikeouts (304) and ERA (3.90). Offensively, Oklahoma State is htting .264 as a team, led by a pair of transfers in Jake Thompson (South Dakota State/Palomar CC/Kentucky) and David Mendham (South Carolina/Connors State CC). The Cowboys are led by head coach Josh Holliday, a former Oklahoma State player who has led OSU to three Super Regionals and one College World Series appearance (2016) in his eight seasons in Stillwater. Josh is the older brother of former MLB All-Star Matt Holliday, who now serves as a volunteer assistant on the Cowboys staff. Oklahoma State was picked second in the Big 12 preseason poll, following a 36-19-1 season in 2021 that ended with a pair of defeats to UC Santa Barbara in the Tuscon regional. STAR TURN:&nbsp;One of the most promising developments for Wichita State's lineup is the improvement of sophomore outfielder&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=5930">Chuck Ingram</a>. After hitting .225 with 34 strikeouts in 89 at-bats a season ago, Ingram has established himself as the Shockers best hitter in 2022, slashing .320/.363/.621. The Kansas City native has an extra-base hit in nine of the last ten games, including all three games of the series in Houston. His two-out, three-run home run in the ninth inning on Friday proved the decisive blow in Wichita State's 4-0 win. CAGING COUGARS:&nbsp;Wichita State Friday night starter&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=5938">Jace Kaminska</a>&nbsp;continued his incredible dominance of Houston over the weekend, fanning a career-best 12 hitters over the course of eight shutout innings. With the win, Kaminska improved to 4-0 in four career starts against the Cougars, and has allowed just two runs in 32.1 total innings (0.56 ERA). He was named the American Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week for his efforts.&nbsp; PRESS THE CLUTCH:&nbsp;Wichita State's recent offensive struggles have been exacerbated by a lack of success in high-leverage situations. The Shockers are hitting just .235 with runners in scoring position, and only .218 with two outs. Meanwhile, opponents are hitting .259 and .242, respectively, in those same two categories.&nbsp; STILL STREAKING:&nbsp;Junior&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=6242">Sawyre Thornhill</a>&nbsp;already has a 19-game hitting streak to his credit during the 2022 season, and has reached base successfully in all 26 games played. He extended the on-base streak with a walk Friday, two doubles Saturday, and both a single and walk in Sunday's series finale. BRILLIANT BYE:<a href="https://goshockers.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=5939">Cameron Bye</a>&nbsp;began the season operating out of the Wichita State bullpen due to an injury in the early spring. He has since worked his way into the weekend rotation as the Sunday starter and put together one of the most dominant stretches for a Shocker pitcher in recent memory. The sophomore right-hander has allowed just a single earned run over 29.0 innings, good for a 0.31 ERA that ranks second in the country. Perhaps just as impressively, Bye has only surrendered 12 hits for an opponent batting average of .122. RUNNING MAN:&nbsp;Outfielder&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=5909">Couper Cornblum</a>&nbsp;has established himself as Wichita State's primary baserunning threat. On a team that has stolen just 21 bases in 29 attempts, Cornblum is now 7-for-7 after setting a new career high on Sunday with three swipes against Creighton. For his career, the sophomore has been successful on 26 of 31 stolen base attempts. LINEUP JUGGLING:<a href="https://goshockers.com/coaches.aspx?rc=905">Eric Wedge</a>&nbsp;continues to tinker with the starting lineup in search of consistent production. Through 27 games, the Shockers have not used the same starters and batting order in consecutive games.&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=5909">Couper Cornblum</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=5930">Chuck Ingram</a>&nbsp;have already started at seven different spots in the batting order, while two others players (<a href="https://goshockers.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=6244">Xavier Casserilla</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=5907">Ross Cadena</a>) have starts at six different spots. SHOCKERS IN THE RPI:&nbsp;Wichita State stands at 117 in the latest RPI rankings following the series loss against Houston, a 20-spot jump after entering the weekend at 137. Upcoming opponent Oklahoma State enters play on Wednesday at 29. Wichita State has played Oklahoma (20), Louisiana Tech (31), Texas State (36), Texas A&amp;M (61) and Creighton (90) and in the non-conference portion of the schedule. NO MINER ACCOMPLISHMENT:&nbsp;Tuesday starter&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=6250">Jace Miner</a>&nbsp;became the eighth different Shocker pitcher to start a game in 2022, six of whom had never started a game at the Division-I level before this season. Entering the game with just 3.0 innings pitched, Miner went 4.0 innings against the Jayhawks, highlighted by a stretch where he retired 10 of 11 hitters from the end of the first inning through the fourth. HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE:&nbsp;Eck Stadium, home of Tyler Field, has consistently been one of the toughest places for opponents to win in its storied history. The Shockers own an all-time home record of 1,272-381-2, including an 862-278-2 mark at Tyler Field (first season 1988). Since taking over as head coach in 2020,&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/coaches.aspx?rc=905">Eric Wedge</a>&nbsp;has put together a 36-13 record at Eck, highlighted by a spotless 10-0 mark during the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign. KEEP IT IN THE FAMILY:&nbsp;Shocker coaches&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/coaches.aspx?rc=905">Eric Wedge</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/coaches.aspx?rc=906">Mike Pelfrey</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/coaches.aspx?rc=907">Mike Sirianni</a>&nbsp;and Director of Operations&nbsp;<a href="https://goshockers.com/staff.aspx?staff=1369">Loren Hibbs</a>&nbsp;all have ties to the WSU baseball program. Wedge powered the Shockers to a national championship as the starting catcher in 1989, earning Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year honors along the way. Pelfrey was an All-American starter who ranks second in program history in ERA (2.18) and strikeouts (366). Sirianni was a volunteer assistant coach for the Shockers in 2015 and 2016 before taking the head coaching position at Regis University. Hibbs helped WSU to the program's first-ever CWS appearance in 1982, and still holds the NCAA record for single-season runs scored with 125. ON DECK:&nbsp;The Shockers head back on the road to resume conference play with three games in Greenville against East Carolina.&nbsp; &nbsp;CLICK HERE to download the Hutch Post mobile app. CLICK HERE to sign up for the daily Hutch Post email news update.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Top-10 Cowboys visit Wichita State on Tuesday


HUTCHINSON,
Kan. — 
On the 50th Anniversary of what is now Country 102.9, former News Director Fred Gough reflected on the funniest moment he had on the air.

"We were at the Kansas State Fair and we were broadcasting live and I'm on the midway, trying to interview people," Gough said. "Went up to this, what I thought looked like a really nice, old lady. She did not want to talk to me. She started hitting me over the headwith her umbrella. This is all live on the air. The gal that was in the booth with me, she's on the floor laughing. I mean, she's on the ground, just dying laughing because this lady is hitting me over the head continuously, threatening to call the police. I thought, ma'am, I'm just trying to interview you. I'm not trying to mug you or do anything. That's always a memory that sticks with me because it was live. That's what I miss, is live radio."

Terry Drouhard was Program Director at KHUT when the branding changed to Country 102.9 in 1989.

"We wanted people, when they heard us, to know it was country," Drouhard said. "I know that sounds obvious, but instead of K-Hut 103, we wanted to be Country 102.9. That was a branding thing. Second thing was, is when I got there, there were three to five thousand songs in rotation. I cut that back to approximately eight hundred. That was to foster the main hits at the time, currents and recurrents that were familiar."

Drouhard got his programming philosophy from Jack Sampson, of KOMA fame and many other great radio stations across the Midwest. 

"Listeners to a radio station want...they not only want familiarity, they want companionship with that. They want information that helps them, that could be weather, news, sports scores. They want to be entertained. That's stayed the same throughout."

The philosophy that Country 102.9 started using in 1989 spread across the country through the Garth Brooks days when country exploded in the 1990s and it's still being used today.

"We kind of emulate each other," Gough said. "It's amazing to me, since I've been retired, I've traveled and listened to other radio stations and their format's almost exactly like KHUT. Other than the call letters being different or the announcers being different, it's basically the very same music, the same rotation sometimes. It amazes me that these formats, no matter where you are in the country, they're kind of the same."

The key to authenticity on the air is character, according to Drouhard.

"The strength of the announcer is being themselves, without trying to be somebody they are not," Drouhard said. "People pick up on that. Over time, they can really hear it."

Drouhard talked about the ability to exude confidence without sounding prideful. Gough said one of the important things is not to take yourself too seriously and be willing to live with your mistakes sometimes.

"It shows you're human," Gough said. "If you're perfect, people aren't going to relate to you as much. People want to meet somebody that is like them."

It is that face-to-face, person-to-person connection that has made KHUT last 50 years, and the goal is to keep it that way for another 50 years.

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By
NICK GOSNELL Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON,
Kan. — 
On the 50th Anniversary of what is now Country 102.9, former News Director Fred Gough reflected on the funniest moment he had on the air."We were at the Kansas State Fair and we were broadcasting live and I'm on the midway, trying to interview people," Gough said. "Went up to this, what I thought looked like a really nice, old lady. She did not want to talk to me. She started hitting me over the headwith her umbrella. This is all live on the air. The gal that was in the booth with me, she's on the floor laughing. I mean, she's on the ground, just dying laughing because this lady is hitting me over the head continuously, threatening to call the police. I thought, ma'am, I'm just trying to interview you. I'm not trying to mug you or do anything. That's always a memory that sticks with me because it was live. That's what I miss, is live radio."Terry Drouhard was Program Director at KHUT when the branding changed to Country 102.9 in 1989."We wanted people, when they heard us, to know it was country," Drouhard said. "I know that sounds obvious, but instead of K-Hut 103, we wanted to be Country 102.9. That was a branding thing. Second thing was, is when I got there, there were three to five thousand songs in rotation. I cut that back to approximately eight hundred. That was to foster the main hits at the time, currents and recurrents that were familiar."Drouhard got his programming philosophy from Jack Sampson, of KOMA fame and many other great radio stations across the Midwest. "Listeners to a radio station want...they not only want familiarity, they want companionship with that. They want information that helps them, that could be weather, news, sports scores. They want to be entertained. That's stayed the same throughout."The philosophy that Country 102.9 started using in 1989 spread across the country through the Garth Brooks days when country exploded in the 1990s and it's still being used today."We kind of emulate each other," Gough said. "It's amazing to me, since I've been retired, I've traveled and listened to other radio stations and their format's almost exactly like KHUT. Other than the call letters being different or the announcers being different, it's basically the very same music, the same rotation sometimes. It amazes me that these formats, no matter where you are in the country, they're kind of the same."The key to authenticity on the air is character, according to Drouhard."The strength of the announcer is being themselves, without trying to be somebody they are not," Drouhard said. "People pick up on that. Over time, they can really hear it."Drouhard talked about the ability to exude confidence without sounding prideful. Gough said one of the important things is not to take yourself too seriously and be willing to live with your mistakes sometimes."It shows you're human," Gough said. "If you're perfect, people aren't going to relate to you as much. People want to meet somebody that is like them."It is that face-to-face, person-to-person connection that has made KHUT last 50 years, and the goal is to keep it that way for another 50 years.

Long-time employees talk about Country 102.9 on 50th Anniversary

Terry Lee Cosby, 69, passed away Thursday, November 28, 2019. He was born on September 3, 1950 in Greensburg to Clifford and Ruby (Ray) Cosby. Terry opened the First Pizza Hut in Pratt as manager they transferred him to Perryton, Texas. A few years later he moved to Wichita and worked for Boeing for 20 years. He was currently working for Central Plains Maintenance in Wichita as a janitor and custodian. He is survived by his brother, Larry Cosby and two nephews, Lance and Chad Cosby all of Pratt. Terry is preceded in death by his parents, Clifford and Ruby (Ray) Cosby. Graveside memorial service will be held Wednesday March 16, 2022 at 2:00 p.m. at Iuka Cemetery, Iuka, at Ruby Cosby and Terry's Service with John Hamm presiding.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Terry Lee Cosby, 69, passed away Thursday, November 28, 2019. He was born on September 3, 1950 in Greensburg to Clifford and Ruby (Ray) Cosby. Terry opened the First Pizza Hut in Pratt as manager they transferred him to Perryton, Texas. A few years later he moved to Wichita and worked for Boeing for 20 years. He was currently working for Central Plains Maintenance in Wichita as a janitor and custodian. He is survived by his brother, Larry Cosby and two nephews, Lance and Chad Cosby all of Pratt. Terry is preceded in death by his parents, Clifford and Ruby (Ray) Cosby. Graveside memorial service will be held Wednesday March 16, 2022 at 2:00 p.m. at Iuka Cemetery, Iuka, at Ruby Cosby and Terry's Service with John Hamm presiding.&nbsp;&nbsp;