July 3, 1975 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
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It
Randy Lewis: mathematician, athlete, unemployed.
If you're a woman and the
head of your household and you
qualify as economically
disadvantaged, Thelma Jackson
wants to talk to you.
Jackson is the project
coordinator for Work Options for
Women (WOW), a federally
funded program designed to help
get women into the work force.
"We work with the v oman to
make her more employable," said
Jackson. "We may get her
counseling or tutoring. We may
suggest she re-enter school... "
Jackson and two others from
WOW, Angela Stepherson and
Ethel Roesch, set up shop in
Shelton's Department of Social
and Health Services building each
Friday. from 1 to 4 p.m. One of
them will be there each week.
WOW is run by the Thurston
County YWCA, which got a
$48,850 grant of Comprehensive
Employment Training Act money
through the State Office of
Community Development.
The YWCA got a block grant
to fund the program in a
three-county area (Lewis, Mason
and Thurston) in March and
started serving Mason County
from the DSHS building last
week.
"'We focus our attention on
getting women jobs they have not
traditionally had" said Jackson,
"'skilled jobs that pay high wages
so that we can get these women
off public assistance. We have
found that a woman may not take
a clerk's job for $350 a month
because it's more lucrative to be
on assistance than to work for
those wages."
For that reason, the
employment office can't always
help a poor woman, said Jackson.
There may be jobs open, but
nothing a poor woman can
"afford to take.'"
There are some 1,000 families
in the three counties with women
heads who are living in poverty,
said Jackson. "We're sure they're
here, but they don't know we're
here, yet," she said.
Actually, any woman who
wants counseling can talk to the
WOW people, but 85 percent of
the women WOW deals with must
Randy Lewis, our college
spotlight who is planning to be an
actuary, explained to us why he
decided to go into the insurance
business: "The day I bought a car
and had an insurance agent quote
me insurance rates, 1 said to
myself, Tm getting into this
racket'."
Randy finally was graduated
from the University of
Washington this month with a
bachelor of science degree in
mathematics after going to four
different schools in five years.
And he may end up going to
school number five this fall.
If given a choice between
going to school and having a
permanent job, Randy would opt
for going to school. He really
doesn't want to "'grow up" just
yet. "I don't like it. I hate it" he
responded when we asked him
about growing up. "I had a lot of
fun going to school."
Randy was graduated from
Shelton High School in 1970. An
outstanding athlete as well as a
scholar, he was number six on the
basketball team which sported a
14-5 record and frequently won
three events in the same day in
track meets. His specialties in
track were the long jump, triple
jump and pole vault; he went to
the state meet in the pole vault in
his senior year.
His first college credits were
earned during high school from
Olympic College night school.
The youngster was planning
to study engineering at
Washington State University, but
he never got into WSU. The
school moved its application
deadline from July 1 to May 1
because of a high number of
freshman applicants that year, but
Randy never heard about the
change. He sent his application in
June and all he got back was a
letter saying "sorry."
So he started at Columbia
Basin Jtmior College. "'1 went to
Columbia Basin for a half of a
quarter on a track scholarship,"
said Randy. "I dropped out when
! found out the track coach
wanted to make me a choir major.
! was sitting there decidint~
registered within two days. They
weren't so much impressed with
my acadenlc record as they were
in the fact 1 had $1500 in the
bank to spend on tuition."
Randy lettered in track in his
freshman year at SPC, but he got
very discouraged with college
athletics because of his
participation. "They (athletics)
were too serious, too much of a
business," he said. "No one was
doing it for the fun of the sport. 1
was running alongside a guy in
turnout one day and he was
saying, 'If it weren't for the
money, I wouldn't be doing
this'." Randy stayed at SPC two
years.
He transferred to the
University of Washington for his
last three years of school because
it had the classes he wanted and it
was cheaper. He got his degree in
the statistics option of
mathematics. He took the
statistics series because he needed
it for his career as an actuary ....
Ae actuary, basically, d~
who pays how much for what
kind of insurance by using
probabilities and statistics.
If Randy gets a position he
likes in Seattle this summer, he'll
probably stay there. Otherwise,
developments were in several
newspapers in the western United
States. Within a day after the
original story appeared in the UW
Daily, rumors, quotes and the
Idaho coach's remarks were m
papers up and down the coast.
"It really snowballed," said
Randy. "I enjoyed the publicity.
Everybody involved enjoyed the
publicity. We were doing it to
have a good time and everyone in
and criticize a policy of the
president and they'd censor the
article," said Randy.
"It would seem to me a more
reasonable approach to instilling
Christian ideals in college students
at a so-called Christian school
would be, instead of arbitrarily
setting down the rules and
conditioning students to follow
behavior patterns that Christians
are supposed to follow, to
'7 believe God is more interested in
why you do something instead of
what you actually do. "'
the athletic department took it so
seriously."
A lot of people called him a
traitor for organizing the rally,
but Randy claimed he had no
allegiance to the UW team just
because he went to school at the
UW. He knew none of the players
and felt no attachment to them,
he said. ..... ~ ~. ,
His phone was ringing off the
hook with calls from people who
wanted to scream at him and calls
from others who didn't. "One
middle-aged woman called me,"
said Randy. "She said, 'I'm a
"She said, 'I'm a former Miss
Washington, and I think what you're
doing is disgusting'. ""
he'd like to continue schooling at
the University of Wisconsin's
actuarial school.
Randy kept active in sports at
the UW and led the school's
intramural recreational basketball
league in scoring as a junior with
17.6 points per game. There were
over 500 ballplayers in the league.
He also placed in both the long
jump and triple jump in the UW's
intramural championship track
rr~et in his junior and senior
years.
One of the most interesting
things Randy did while at the
University of Washington was to
try to organize a pep rally for the
"poor little old" Idaho Vandals
On growing up: '7 don't like it. I hate
it.'"
whether to take chemistry or
physics and the coach came up to
me and said, 'Randy, Fd like you
to meet our choir director'."
The people at Columbia Basin
acted like they were from Mars,
he said.
"Then 1 enrolled at Seattle
Pacific College because it was the
only school that would accept me
on two days' notice;' said Randy.
"I applied, was accepted and
• i i
football team when it came to
Seattle to play a game in 1973.
He and a group of others thought
it was ridiculous for the UW to
schedule patsies like Idaho, so
they decided they'd root for the
underdog.
They planned a pep rally, but
it was construed as an anti-Jim
Owens rally and the Idaho coach
refused to let his team go to the
function. The storY and its
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think what you're doing is
disgusting'."
A teacher from Bellevue
called him and asked him to
lecture in front of her high school
class.
"Most of the things you learn
at college, you learn outside the
classroom," said Randy. "You
associate with people your own
age and those who have the same
interests. You learn from the
interaction between the people
you associate with.
"You learn about life. Unless
you're going to SPC, which has
nothing to do with the real world.
"SPC is the most expensive
church camp l've ever gone to.
The school has its own perception
of what a Christian existence
should consist of and has
incorporated these ideas into rules
and behavior patterns that the
students are expected to follow. I
am of the opinion that the rules
are primarily for alumni
contributors to the school."
The rules include no smoking,
no drinking, no dancing and no
having someone of the opposite
sex in your room except during
certain hours. The administrators
also censored the school paper.
"Someone would come oul
were graduated from the UW with
grade point averages exceeding
3.9 .)
He was asked whai's
interesting about math. "There's
nothing more satisfying than
solving a system of linear
homogenous equations that can
be represented by a nonsingular
matrix with positive eigenvalues,"
he replied. We didn't ask any
more questions about math.
encourage students to look deep
inside themselves, find Jesus, and
from this relationship with Him,
determine what is appropriate in
their particular situation. I believe
God is more interested in why
you do something instead of what
you actually do.
"This is not to say I don't
think SPC is a free school. I was
glad to have the opportunity to
go there."
Randy is a rather conservative
person politically. He doesn't like
George McGovern, the
Democrats' candidate for
president in 1972. What if
McGovem ran against Shelton's
dogcatcher tomorrow for
president? we asked him. "I'd
campaign for the dogcatcher," he
said. He voted for Nixon in 1972.
"I'd still vote for him against
McGovern, knowing what I know
now," he said.
He feels Henry Gay, Journal
editor, is a communist.
Randy got interested in
mathematics in his early school
years and decided on it for a
career because he was always
Randy doesn't know whether
he should be classified as a scholar
or something else. "I really don't
think in terms of 'scholar' or
'jock' or anything else," he said.
"I'm not a scholar in the sense
that I can read a story in English
literature and then tell my English
teacher how Mergatroid's hatred
for her mother because she
slapped her as a child caused her
to buy yellow toilet paper in her
adult life."
He listed "watching Husky
basketball" as one of his favorite
experiences at the UW. And he
also said his math classes were
fascinating.
Like so many of the folks
who leave Shelton to go to
college, Randy has decided he
really doesn't want to live here
any more. "Shelton is a nice place
to grow up, but I don't think I'D
want to live here now," he said.
"Theie are more things to do in
Seattle."
Randy is a member of the
Emanuel Bible Church in Seattle
and works with grade school boys
each Wednesday night at the
church.
He is the son of Mrs. Dixie
Burnett of Shelton. Randy is 23.
He has a sister, Sandy, 28, and a
What if McGovern ran against
Shelton's dogcatcher tomorrow for
president? "'I'd campaign for the
dogcatcher."
pretty successful at it. "I was one
of three people who got an A in
the first semester from Mr.
Morton in ninth grade geometry,"
Randy stated proudly. "The other
two people were John Gray and
Sue Lemagie." (Gray and Lemagie
brother, Mark, 20. He also has a
stepsister, Mary Bumett, 19, and
three step-brothers, Mark Bumett,
27, Jim Burnett, 25, and Joel
Burnett, 22.
"And I'm madly in love with
a girl named Meribeth," he added.
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Page 6 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, July 3, 1975
qualify as economically
disadvantaged. The other 15
percent don't have to be
disadvantaged.
WOW can even refer women
to local mental health workers.
'Whis could be for those who are
depressed," said Jackson. "A
depressed woman has to take care
of personal problems. Obviously
if she has deep personal problems,
she would never produce well on
the job."
YWCA personnel working in
the WOW project work closely
with employers, unions,
businesses, agencies, contractors
and other organizations
connected with the employment
market in developing the
opportunities for women.
"This is not from a women's
R(
~imb~
Thelma Jackson of WOW
liberation point of view," said
Jackson, "but to get women out
of the poverty situation."
"We work with each°u
individually, because each is
different stage of
in Lee
Robin Lee Bain, the daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. Walter G. Bain of
Shelton, and Alan Biehl, the son
of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Biehl of
Cheney, were married in a
morning ceremony before 175
guests at the Methodist Church in
Shelton on June 14.
Pastor Kenneth Robinson
from Faith Lutheran performed
the double ring ceremony in
which the parents of both the
bride and groom gave them in
marriage.
The bride wore a gown of
white acetate crepe with a high
neck, empire waist, full
wrist-length sleeves and a chapel
length train and lace trim on the
bodice, skirt and hemline. She
had a tulle lace-trim veil, held in
place by half crown lace and pearl
trim, and she carried white
rosebuds and yellow daisies.
Andria Tibbits of Shelton was
the matron of honor. Carolyn
Gray, the sister of the groom
from Cheney, and Beverly
Beckwith of Shelton were the
bridesmaids.
John Boots of Pomeroy,
Washington was the groom's best
man. Carl Biehl, brother of the"
groom from Cheney; Jim Biehl,
cousin of the groom from
Tacoma; and Nick Larson,
nephew of the bride from Laeey,
served as ushers. Angela Jones
and Molly Coogan, nieces of the
bride, passed reception scrolls.
Dee Morton was the musician
and Sharon Collins, sister of the
bride from Federal Way, was the
singer.
A reception was held in the
church following the ceremony.
Judy Coogan, sister of the bride,
poured; Sharon Collins, cut the
in marr|es
Mr. and Mrs. Alan Biehl
cake; Anne Biehl, sister-in-law of
the groom from Cheney, handled
the punch bowl; Carrie Coogan
and Diane Collins, nieces of the
bride, were in charge of the guest
book; and Mary Jones, sister of
the bride from I.acey, was
charge of the gift table.
The couple took a short trip
to the Oregon coast for the
honeymoon. They plan to live in
Cheney this summer while going
to summer school at Eastern
Washington State College and will
permanently reside in Shelton,
where the groom is a band
instructor at the Shelton Middle
School and the bride is
elementary school
Hood Canal School.
The bride is a Sbelton
School graduate who
Olympic Junior College
B r e me r¢o m~aLn d
Community College in
Way before being graduated
Central Washington
The groom went to:
school in Cheney,
Oregon State
Eugene and was graduated
Eastern Washington
He is a member of the
Symphony Orchestra and
Grays Harbor Symphony.
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