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This Day In USC History November 10, 1998 - USC’s Department of Law Enforcement and Safety brings Rape Aggression Defense program to campus. Wednesday, November 10,1999 %\it (BaiUCCOCk Page 11 §till flying by Charley Gillespie Associated Press SOMERSET, Ohio - Ralph Charles has been around airplanes long enough to have known Charles Lindbeigh, flown with Eleanor Roosevelt and caught a glimpse of Orville Wight. And at 100, he’s still able to enjoy planes from the vantage he loves most: the cockpit. a “When I saw my first airplane, I I thought it was like a magic carpet,” Charles said. “I still think of planes that way.” I About 300 people showed up Sunday to cel- ’ ebrate his centennial a day early at his Somerset home, about 39 miles east of Columbus. Fellow aviation buffs arrived in 13 planes and two helicopters that flew in to a landing strip on the 23-acre site. Charles had stopped flying in the 1940s at his late wife’s request. But he bought a plane two years ago, and re ceived a student pilot’s license from the Federal Aviation Administration last year. Now he goes on joyrides and attends aviation events every week. He’s probably the nation’s oldest student pilot, and perhaps its oldest licensed pilot of any kind. FAA spokesman Roland Herwig said that, as far as he can determine, the agency’s oldest fully licensed pilots are both 96. The love affair with flying began long ago. Charles enlisted in the Army during World Wir I in hopes of learning to fly, but the war ended be fore he got the chance. His welding skill got him a job at the Rinehart Whelan Aviation School in Dayton, Ohio, where he repaired and maintained planes. “There were maybe 10 pi lots in the whole state back then, and I got acquainted with them while working on their planes,” he said. It was there that he occasionally saw Orville I Wight working in the shop, 1 though he never spoke to the aviation 1 pioneer, who lived in Dayton. “Orville lived in seclusion and didn’t like 1 people to know where he lived,” he said. 1 Charles said he wanted to fly so badly that I he built his own plane, but didn’t know how to I Eventually, he talked Bernard Whelan, one of Wight’s first trained fliers, M into giving him lessons. I “I had about four ■ hours of training before \ my first flight,” Charles \ said. “After showing I could take off and land three times with success, they let me go and fly the plane I built." He made his share of mistakes — including a landing made with his gear left up. “I realized my mistake when I saw the pro peller getting shorter,” he said. In the early 1920s, steel-bod 3d planes were replacing wood e n - bodied aircraft and steel repair experts were in demand. So when Rinehart-Whelan fold ed, Charles got a job with Consoli dated Aircraft at Wright field. He married in 1925, and said he got through the Depression by building air planes, such as the high-wing two-seater he owns today. He also m began flying |%**^*^^*» charter planes based at the Stan dard Oil hangar in Newark, N.J., where I Lindbeigh kept a plane in the years fol lowing his 1927 solo flight from New York to Paris. “I’d talk to him at times, but this was after his baby was murdered, and he was the saddest person you’ll ever see,” Charles said. Eleanor Roosevelt was a passenger on an ex cursion he flew from Newark in the 1930s While her husband was in office. “I took her back a box lunch, then went back up and flew the plane,” he said. Charles went to the Caribbean ^ in 1940 to run a charter service in I the Virgin Islands. ■ Three years later, he and his M wife, Leona, moved to Colum bus, where he tested Helldiver bombers built for die Navy by the for mer Curtiss-Wright company. He said he stopped flying because Leona was tired of transferring from state to state. But for the roughly 20 years he owned an au to repair shop — and the years that followed his 1965 retirement — the thought of flying again stayed with him. “Imagine not driving a car for 50 years, only worse,” Charles said. “Sometimes when I would mow, I would imagine my tractor was a plane and I was rising up into the sky.” Leona died in 1995 at age 94. They had been married 70 years. Charles, having kept his promise, was ready to return to the skies. Other than a physical exam every six months, he has no restrictions beyond those of other stu dent pilots. “I’m not allowed to take passengers, and I can only fly 25 miles away front home,” he said. “But I don’t give a hoot. I just enjoy flying.” 'Service equals success' Creed Week essay contest winner by Regina A. Greene Creed Week.Essay Winner “The aim of education should be service, to success.” I first came across these words while thumbing through a brochure for the AmeriCorps/VISTA affiliated TeachFor America, a program that gives outstanding recent college graduates the chance to impact the lives and minds of American school children in distressed and impoverished urban and rural com munities. Seeing the words again on a flier concerning the Univer sity of South Carolina’s annual celebration of Carolinian Creed Week, instantly reminded me of how important these words are. The quotation, attributed to California migrant workers’ labor leader of the 1960s and 1970s, Cesar Chavez, stopped me in the middle of the brochure. While I agreed wholeheartedly with the communitarian ideal expressed by Mr. Chavez, I asked myself: Could not ser vice be in, and of itself, successful? The goal of any educational institution should be to pro duce civic-minded, socially aware, politically conscious and community serving individuals. This notion may be poorly exemplified, as educational in stitutions rarely name building or grounds after the woman who fought to keep hazardous waste out of her poor Missis sippi Delta community, but rather name them after the com panies that make the hazardous waste and donate millions to the university. In an ideal world, those same individuals who find them selves in the position to significantly endow American colleges would be the same people who find sometimes find themselves on the unpopular side of conventional wisdom when they strive to serve their fellow citizens. But I am proud to study at an institution that places values of conscience over values of status. As evidenced in one section of our Carolinian Creed, we value those individuals with, for example, the fortitude to re spect the dignity of all persons. While specifically referred to in an academic context, the creed is not meant to be limited to residence hall and class rooms in its application. Rather, those of us who believe in the ideals of the creed wish that the world - because when this takes place it will be difficult not to see the roles of civic and public servant that we should all endeavor to take on. I contend that when one lives her life according to the stan dards set forth in the Carolinian Creed, it is impossible to be unsuccessful. As one who believes in the integrity and necessity of ser vice and the value and humanity of my fellow citizen, I find the guidelines of the creed remarkable in their timeless ap plicability. More importantly, I find the guidelines of the creed to be the perfect example of how service and success are not mu tually exclusive — quite the contrary, as a matter of fact. In deed, the Carolinian Creed is the perfect example of a prop er valuation of ideals that lend themselves to the only true success: public service at any and every level. Ralph Waldo Emerson had it right: “To leave the world a bit better... this is to have succeeded.” Harvard to give $20 million in low-interest housing loans in Cambridge and Boston by Robin Estrin Associated Press GAMBfflDGEt Mass.—Harvard University is pledging $20 million in low interest loans to build affordable housing in Cambridge and Boston and counter Massachusetts’ soaring housing costs. Other colleges have given millions for community development in blight ed areas near their campuses, but Harvard’s money can be used for low- and mod erate-income housing across the two cities. “This commitment to housing is really far beyond what you would expect from an educational institution,” said Robert Healy, Cambridge’scity manager. The plan was expected to be formally announced Wednesday. Harvard will disfrihnfp th« $2(1 million to thrpp nnnnrofit housinsr orrani zations over the next two to three years. The money must be repaid after 20 years, at an interest rate of 2 percent. The agencies will give the money to developers building everything from apartments for seniors to single-family houses for poor people. Affordable housing has become a top priority in Boston and in Cambridge, which abolished rent control with a 1994 ballot initiative. A two-bedroom Boston apartment that rented for $825 in 1995 rose to $1,350 in 1998 — a 64 percent increase. Since 1980, the price of a home in Massachusetts has increased more than 233 percent Metropolitan Boston is now the sixth most expensive housing mar ket in the country, following San Francisco, Honolulu, Los Angeles, New York City and San Diego. “Harvard benefits enormously from the vitality and attractiveness of Cam bridge and Boston, but that benefit will erode if there is nowhere to live,” Har vard President Neil L. Rudenstine said. i Campus Notes RHA holds semiformal The Residence Hall Association will hold a “Midnight in the Garden” semiformal from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. Fri day at Meetings on Main. Tickets can be bought at the RH Information Desk and the RHA office in the Residence Education office in the Towers. Tickets are $5 a person and $8 a couple. AAAS to sponser spring break cruise The Association of African-American .Students is sponsoring a five-day spring break Bahamas cruise from March 6 to 10. For more information, call LaTonya at 544-2254. Deadline for securing a spot is Nov. 16. SHARE to sell ribbons Sexual Health Awareness and Rape Ed ucation Peers will be selling ribbons for the Hopelights campaign from 10 am. to 2 p.m. Nov. 17 and 18 on Greene Street. Proceeds benefit the Rape Cri sis Network. CHDC offers workshops The Counseling and Human Develop ment Center is offering a “Healing the Wound: Recovering from Loss” work shop for those who have experienced loss, both obvious ones like death and less obvious ones like changes in lifestyles. This workshop will describe a healing process and provide time for discussion and sharing. For more infor mation or to register, call 777-5223. WMHK radio station to hold Carolina-Clemson tailgate party WMHK89.7, a Christian radio station will be holding a tailgate party on from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Nov. 20 before the Carolina-Clemson game. It will be broadcasting live at the Biscuit House across from Williams-Brice Stadium. Drop by and meet Carolina and Clem son athletes and coaches and register to win prizes. For more information, call WMHK at 754-5400. Governor’s Mansion open for holiday tour Gov. Jim and his wife will host the an nual open house tour at the Governor’s Mansion from 4 p.m.- 7 p.m. Dec. 2. Tours are free to the public, with no reservations required. For more infor mation, call 737-1710. Briefs for Campus Notes can be sub mitted to RH 333. Please include a con tact name and phone number. We can’t promise to print everything, but we can promise to try. Sponsored6y i£e {Residence Jfalf{TlssociaJion . /\/of fzszi/'z/< AJ7. A999 6Aame.’ <0.'06fos/i - A.’00as/i S7$zce. • A^eeA/sigz-9 osi ../AAr/rs/ A7- /9 ,y6&rz/A S$/*eeA t C&o^A.’ $S. 00«i'tsigzAe, $0.00 c&eyiAe $-7 ///yy/^J^/// f/A ^jy? /A* s'a l >. ec^f/fe rr rArtrorsty far /wo Aee Ar/tstrr-i ost //- /O - 9-9. ^ 4 - UicJteio can £epurchased\at t£e CRusself Jfouse information 7)extt ori£eHifHofficefrom 1Oam - 5pm locatedin t£e iowers. Does a part-time job that pays $8.50-$9.50 per hour and won’t interfere with your class schedule sound too good to be true? At UPS, most students work in operations. There’s plenty of time to study and to recharge while working 3-5 hours a day. To arrange an interview for employment , contact United Parcel Service at 822-6294 An equal opportunity employer, m/f/h/v