75 years ago

Oct. 8, 1941

Walter T. Leasy, Aberdeen youth who enlisted in the army as a buck private seven years ago, last week became Second Lieutenant Leasy, one of 166 selected men to be graduated from an officers’ training course and moved up from the ranks to officer status.

His father is an Aberdeen policeman.

Oct. 9, 1941

A proud milestone in the education of Vance Kovach, 32-year-old Croatian immigrant, was marked this fall when the broad-shouldered, serious-minded student entered the seventh grade at Miller junior high.

It was a triumph for the Croatian, a victory over the handicaps of knowing neither the language, the people nor customs of the United States.

Kovach is studying to become an American citizen. He already has his first papers but needs a background of English and history before he can obtain his second and final credentials.

Asked whether he were married, Kovach grinned widely. “Oh, no,” he laughed. “I am still a schoolboy.”

50 years ago

Oct. 8, 1966

For want of a beginning, organized football among youngsters of grade school age in Aberdeen and Hoquiam, as in most other towns, isn’t.

But along the South Beach, thanks to a beginning supplied this season by George Caldwell, president of the Grays Harbor Officials Association, and Westport charter service operator Bus Travis, 40 gridders in the 9-12 age bracket are knocking heads three times weekly and absorbing the fundamentals of the game.

Four teams — two heavyweight and two lightweight — go through drills Tuesday and Thursday nights on the Ocosta High School field, then clash under game conditions on Saturday.

Travis and Caldwell handle one heavyweight and one lightweight team each, the contests generally pitting the “Travists” against the “Caldwells.” “We run standard plays,” Caldwell explained,” except that we use 9-man teams, eliminating the tackles.”

Oct. 9, 1966

Sunday, no newspaper published

25 years ago

Oct. 8, 1991

• A 36-year-old sheriff’s deputy who “grew up in law enforcement while serving in the sheriff’s office,” is the new head of the sheriff’s detective division, County Sheriff Dennis Morrisette said this morning.

Rick Scott was the original detective sergeant in charge of the countywide drug task force and is heading that group this year. Scott will replace Neal Darrow as chief criminal deputy in charge of investigations.

“He is a policeman’s policeman,” Morrisette said. “He’s always maintained a positive professional approach and that means a lot to me. He’s also not an eight-hour-a-day person,” the sheriff added, saying that Scott has even offered to return from vacation to help out on an investigation.

• Hundreds of Harborites have been infected with the AIDS virus. They just don’t know it.

While only 16 current cases of AIDS have been reported on the Harbor, the actual number of people infected is at least 320, according to a formula from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

Most people who are infected don’t have a clue that they are, said Shirley George, the county health department’s AIDS Awareness and Prevention Coordinator.

Oct. 9, 1991

Philip Williams is a mystery writer and lawyer who has set up a law practice in Ocean Shores.

He and his wife, Sandra Garret, also a mystery writer, moved to the Harbor because it’s not New York, it’s not California and it’s not even Port Townsend.

As writers and parents, they wanted a place where the people were just folks and there was mist, not marijuana smoke in the air. “There’s a incredible number of flower children in Port Townsend,” he said.

“When I was a corporate lawyer,” Williams commented, “I could say, ‘Gee, I saved a big company $500,000 today and I might get a raise next year, or I might not. There’s nothing soul-searching about that.’ “

But at Ocean Shores, there is something soul-searching about walking on the beach, and he does it every morning.

Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom