Our original KDIAI Charter.
 

This KDIAI logo is found on a July - August 1977 Prairie Whorlwind.

 Here is another former KDIAI logo.

This logo was replaced by this new one which was designed by Scott Sayles, a Kansas State University student. He won a contest by drawing the winning logo for the Kansas Division IAI. He was given a check for $50 at the Spring KDIAI Conference, Topeka Holiday Inn Downtown on May 10, 1990. It has been slightly modified since then.

Our two KDIAI flags are based on the KDIAI logo design found in the above middle logo and the logo above. The one in the middle was made by the wife of former member Tom Mayhill (retired Wichita PD). Our current KDIAI flag was made by the wife, nephew, and mother of KDIAI Secy./Treas. Steve Koch.
 

Can you identify the persons displaying our KIAI Charter in this 1979 photo?
 

Recently discovered photo of Bob Olsen working at the KBI Lab.
 

"BLAST FROM THE PAST"

Excerpted from The Prairie Whorlwind,  
June 1994.

Respectfully submitted by James Ron Davis, KDIAI Member #8, Emporia Police Department, Emporia, Kansas

A few months ago, Karen Hamm asked me why the annual awards for KDIAI are named as they are. The award for Article of the Year is named the A. J. Renoe Award, and the John C. Hazelet award is given for the Member of the Year.

First let me say that I do not consider myself a historian of the KDIAI. I am a Charter Member of the Kansas Division, as are several other members still in good standing. I will not attempt to name all of the charter members because I know I would leave someone out.

I should preface my remarks about the awards with a little background information. The KDIAI is the result of a lot of work by very few people. William Tucker is considered by me and others to be the "Father'' of the KDIAI. He was the first President. Bill was also, for many years, Editor and Secretary/Treasurer. Establishing a Kansas Division of the IAI was a dream or vision for Mr. Tucker. He is, to my knowledge, the only Life Member voted by the association since our charter in 1976. That first year, we had a $17.00 treasury.

In 1977, it was suggested that we give awards for "Member of the Year," "Article of the Year" and "Journal Cover Design." The idea was to stimulate participation by the membership in the association. All three awards were won by Bill Tucker that year. At the annual meeting, the membership voted to continue the member and article awards on a yearly basis. At one time, a point system was devised to determine the member award. Points were earned for attending training seminars, annual conferences, and recruiting new members. The article award was determined by the Editor and the Board of Directors.

The first newsletter was written by Bill "Friar Tuck" Tucker. It was just called The Newsletter. Later it was named the ID Journal, and then The Communicator. Bill received recognition at the national level for a good informative newsletter several pages in length, and it even had clean jokes in it.

Robert Olsen, Sr. changed the name of the newsletter to The Prairie Whorlwind when he took over as Editor. Bob suggested that our annual awards be named in honor of a person who contributed in some way to the forensic profession, either on a national or local level.

Bob had done some research which involved a man named A. J. Renoe, who was a clerk at the Leavenworth, Kansas Penitentiary. Mr. Renoe gained some notoriety during the infamous "Will/William West" case in 1903, which was responsible for authorities giving more weight to fingerprints as a source for identification. After taking the fingerprints of the two inmates, who looked very much alike, and observing the fingerprints to be different, eventually all inmates' fingerprints taken by Mr. Renoe at the penitentiary were sent to Washington to help form the FBI fingerprint files. The West story has already been printed in both the Kansas and International newsletters. Anyway, since Mr. Renoe made fingerprint history in Kansas, his name was suggested.

Another man who helped a great deal in the early years to form the Kansas Division was the late John C. Hazelet. He worked very hard with Bill Tucker and others in organizing the KDIAI. He and I were the first directors appointed by the President in 1976. John was Assistant Deputy Secretary of Corrections for Kansas at that time.

Prior to that, John was a life member of the International Association for Identification, having joined in 1947. He had been a Regional vice-president for IAI in San Francisco, California. He was also Supervisor of Records for the Ft. Wayne, Indiana P.D., and Chief of Police in Lawrence, Kansas. His wife, Alma, was invited to present the first John C. Hazelet Award, which is the one I received at the annual meeting in Salina in 1981. Mrs. Hazelet is a delightful lady who, as far as I know, still lives in Topeka, and is a "Distinguished Member" of KDIAI.

MORE BLAST FROM THE PAST

Excerpted from The Prairie Whorlwind, June 1995.

Last year I wrote a little article about the names used for the KDIAI annual awards, the John C. Hazelet and A.J. Renoe awards. As I said before, I am not the division historian, I've just been around since dirt was invented.

I thought maybe someone might be interested in the background of the creation of the Kansas Division banner. While attending the international conferences, we noticed that other divisions had beautiful, colorful banners which were hung in the convention hall as if to say, "We are here."

We (the board of directors) decided that we needed to design a banner for the Kansas Division. The first project was begun in 1981 and the work was awarded to a commercial firm. After several months, the banner was brought before the Board of Directors in rough form for approval. This banner was rejected.

It was then that Tom Mayhill recruited the services of his lovely wife, Paula. She labored for several months with the design, and hand sewed a beautiful gold banner with blue lettering. I understand the fingerprint under the magnifier is Tom's actual right thumb print. The original design called for the thumb print of Sir Francis Galton. The work was done in such detail that you wouldn't need the AFIS computer to make a match.

We got the finished banner just in time to take it to a conference in Rochester, New York. Rick Fahy, Charlie Klamm and I began the trek in Rick's Chevrolet Van. We decided to drive straight through, with all sharing the driving. We got lost only once, and I have to admit it was fifteen minutes after I took over the wheel for the first time. I tried to "just stay on I-70" like Rick said, but somehow Charlie Klamm noticed that the sign said something about Des Moines, Iowa being only several hundred miles away when he declared us to be going in the wrong direction.

I still have fond memories of that conference: the few hours sleep we got in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, the stop at the BFWF (big freakin' waterfall) at Niagara Falls, and finally at the hotel where I drank one or two glasses of beer that the bartender affectionately called "trots ale." I found out around 1:00 A.M. the next morning why she called it that. Let's just say I changed my drink to Pepto Bismol.

Anyway, I had given our banner to a bus boy to have carefully hung in the conference meeting room along with all the other banners. The next morning when we walked in, the first thing we saw was our banner nailed to the wall with two large rusty nails protruding from either side right through the beautiful gold cloth. I felt that our banner had been crucified. Needless to say, the banner was properly re-hung using the curtain rod provided for that purpose.

There were other highlights at that conference, like a dinner at an Italian place owned by a godfather looking guy that put Marlon Brando to shame. There was a food fight at the closing banquet (ask Rick Fahy about that one) and oh yeah, we did attend the training seminar and lectures, presentations on laser detection of latent prints, questioned document techniques, and skeletal remains. But the real memories are of the people we met and talked shop with until the early morning hour. Those are the professional relationships and friendships we forged and still exist today.

Each of you should plan to attend one of the international conferences. The training and the "after training" is something you will never forget.