Friday, February 4, 1983 Alumnus MarshallHouts: The Clarion By Jon Zillioux ^Explosion Of Knowledge’ Is Opportunity Brevard College Alumnus Mar shall Houts (’37), the world’s foremost medilegal attorney, says that today’s “explosion of knowledge” is the means by which Brevard College students can hope to achieve success in to day’s world. “Today’s students are much more sophisticated,” stated Mr. Houts in a recent Clarion inter view following his Spring Con vocation address in Dunham January 19, Mr. Houts says that the stu dent’s accessibilty to today’s growing technology gives him “a deeper sense of knowlege and it gives him motivation. Financial ly, today’s student has more op portunities,” stated the Brevard graduate. But as he pointed out in both his Convocation address and the in terview, college students didn’t always enjoy the current benifits which many students take for granted today. “You worked like heck in my day,” he recalled. “You didn’t look back.” Undoubtedly Mr. Houts knew what it meant to work because he attended Brevard during the worst of the depression. When he arrived on campus during the summer of 1935, he had only $4.79 with him. “Brevard College was in the middle of a ‘cashless society': I don’t like to use the word ‘ poverty’ to describe Brevard because the people here weren’t impoverish ed. They had spirit, but they just didn’t have the money,” he ex plained. Houts says that spirit and dedication were the tools with which Brevard College was con structed: “There was a certain spirit here I never found anywhere else-a spirit of mutual assistance, of living in harmony. Self-help was the whole theory on which the college was founded.” . Houts studied hard during his stay at the young college, and during the summer he drove a farming tractor, at ten-cents per Lour, to earn his keep. “Driving that tractor was perhaps the hardest task I’ve undertaken,” he joked. “Nothing could have been worse than that!” Compared with the students of the 1930’s, Mr. Houts sees a change in attitude in many of to day’s students. He explained, “There are too many drop-outs; they say they’re trying to ‘find themselves’, while others drag out their stay in college for years. ‘There are too many (college) drop-outs.’ "Dropping out isn’t a way to find yourself. If there’s any place for that, it’s in college,” he stated. While in college the most pro ductive achievement a student should aim for is what Houts calls “the command of the English language”. His advice to BC students is this; to become suc cessful communicators. “Power of speech is the most powerful thirtg you can learn at Brevard College,” he said. “It’s a thrill to be able to express yourself effec tively.” He added, “I got as sound a footing here culturally and academically as I could have elsewhere. My training stood on par to all competitions.” Regarding Mr. Houts’ acquired position in the legal world today, apparently Brevard did give him just that. After graduating from Brevard, Mr. Houts went directly into law school his junior year at the University of Minnesota where he went on to earn both his BSL and doctor degrees in law. During WWII he entered the FBI and served as an undercover agent for the OSS (forerunner of the CIA) in Brazil, attempting to watch the Nazi’s “extensive es ■ I Brevard graduate Marshall Houts:“My training here stood on par to all competitions.” pionage and sabotage operations” which were then plaguing that country. That story itself could fill a whole page. After the war Houts began his law practice. And it was “almost by accident” that he discovered the field of forensic medicine, a field which he has devoted most of his career to, and the field which has made him well-known to lawyers worldwide. Houts had been reinvestigating a murder case in which the cause of death had not been firmly established. What he discovered from this case, as well as many others, was an innocent convict, poor police work, and a poor autopsy. ‘Dropping out isn’t the way to find yourself.’ A_ publisher heard of Houts’ work and was interested. “A publisher came to us and asked us to write a book on this,” Mr. Houts said. “We were the first (in the field of medilegal studies) ; from that first book we took off and no one else has come close to us yet,” he explained. “We were at the right place at the right time.” Since then Mr. Houts and a small editorial staff have written 35 medilegal books, including “Lawyers’s Guide to Medical Proof” and “Seminar in Cour troom Toxicology”. Another notable achievement of Houts’ is his reinvestigation of over 600 murder cases. “We did this in an effort to see if any of those found guilty were actually innocent.” Not only did he find some con victs who insisted they were inno cent, he was able to prove so, us- something from one of your books ing the medilegal knowledge he and it helped us,’is what satisfies had accumulated. us the most. Mr. Houts says he wants to use “We are monthly hard-cover publication for lawyers which he writes a ma jority of, edits, and publishes. “Trauma has the largest circula tion of its kind (7000) in the world,” Mr. Houts stated. Not only has Houts’ work at tracted the attention of the public and criminal lawyers nationwide, it has attracted the ever action- seeking moviemakers of Hollywood. In additions to NBC’s “Quincy” series being derived from a book Houts wrote, the movie industry is currently interested in his work. “MGM has adapted one of our books into a movie called ‘Eureka’,” he said. “Eureka stars, among others, Gene Hackman and Teresa Russels. However, Mr. Houts points out that “Eureka” is “typically Hollywood; it’s as close to the book as Hollywood ever gets.” The movie is scheduled to air sometime this spring. ‘You worked like heck in my day; you didn’t look back.’ In addition to editing Trauma, Mr. Houts tours the country lec turing on his books and work. He is currently planning a fall trip to Red China where he says he’s go ing to elaborate his medilegal techniques to the Chinese. Mr. Houts explained that the successful use of his ideas as brought forth in his books and Trauma by the many lawyers na tionwide is what makes his work satisfying. “To have lawyers come up to us and say, ‘We used his work as a “vehicle to increase public interest in this field. We want to uncover poor autopsies and poor police work to prevent these miscarriages from occur- ing again.” What keeps Houts the busiest today, however, is Trauma, a bi being used by lawyers; our work helps them, and this helps their clients,” Mr. Houts concluded. “I’d like to quit,” he said with regards to the near future, “but I’m afraid that I’m too busy to do that.” BC Is Catching Up With The ComputerAge By Wanda Raines The addition of two computers to the Brevard College Registrar’s office is only the beginning of a big project that the College is planning. The two microcomputers were 3dded to aid in registration, and eventually more will be added for use in other areas. Dean Wray stated that this is a D'g project for the College, and he 's obviously very excited.” He 3 so commented that there is still 3 long way to go before everything planned will be ac- wmplished. I do not know how it would be possible to make more progress ®one semester,” said the Dean, uean Wray credited Bobbie Jean Nicholson, Steve Holland, and Bill Gash for working ® essly with the computer, in the Registrar’s office, the y O' this computer, and Olivet- will increase semester by semester. This semester the com puter is being used to keep stu dent schedules and to get com puter printouts to the teachers of their class rolls. The next step for the computer is to retain past semester records and combine semesters to pro duce transcripts. Dr. Wray stated that the transcripts would be more accurate and could be pro cessed more quickly than by hand. Other projects planned for the computer are a printout of re quirements for graduation which will be sent to the student and his advisor at the end of each semester. Another printout will also be sent to the Business Office for each student, so that special fees may be billed. Grades will also be sent to students on a printout, as was the case for this past grading term. Dean Wray said that the next big project will be to develop a two-year, university-paralle. computer science program. Computer Science Department of year private college will have Talks with consultants in this Brown University was here to better facilities than we do at area have already begun. offer advice on the program. Brevard; we expect our facilities Last week the Chairman of the “When we are finished, no two- to be a model,” Dean Wray said. Whara rt over o Fealnrinf! The Ctmlempurary Music Of “DALLAS Friday, Feb. 4th 7-lOpm Oh Susanna’s Hours Mon.-Tues lOam-Spm Wed lOam-Spm Thurs.-Fri lOam-lOpm Sorry Closed Sat. & Sun. 230 ujest mam street 883-3289