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Saturday, February 18, 2012 – Daily News 7A Glory Days & maturity By Jim Carney Akron Beacon Journal (MCT) AKRON, Ohio — Dr. Henry "Hank" Stevens stands in a chemistry lab at the University of Akron. A dozen students at desks in front of him await his instruction. A chart of the Periodic Table of the Elements covers part of the wall to his side. For Stevens, teaching chemistry, being around young people and staying busy has been an elemen- tal part of his life for a long time. A very long time. Stevens, who will turn 94 in April, is the oldest employee on campus. For parts of six decades, he has taught chemistry at the university. He believes he "remains young" by help- ing students, often 75 years younger than him, understand chemistry. "I enjoy the contact with young people," said Stevens, a Vienna native who immigrated to the United States in 1939 after serving in the Austrian army. He received his under- graduate degree in chem- istry from Columbia Uni- versity, married his wife, Jean, and moved to Bar- berton, Ohio, in 1941 to work for Columbia South- ern, which became PPG. Later, he moved to Akron and received his master's and doctorate degrees in chemistry from Western Reserve University while working at PPG. His first stint as a part- time faculty member was from 1954 to 1963, when he taught doctoral students in the graduate school. One of his first students was Frank Kelley in a polymer science class. Kelley later became dean of UA's College of Poly- MCT photo Hank Stevens teaches a basic chemistry class at the University of Akron on Feb. 6. Stevens, who will turn 94 in April, is the oldest employee on campus. lifestyles Chemistry instructor going strong in his 90s mer Science. Stevens retired from PPG following a 42-year career in which he held a variety of positions, including chemist, and worked with universities across the country on tech- nology transfer. He began teaching again in 1986 and still teaches one class a semester. Stevens has taught in the graduate and under- graduate schools at the University of Akron as well as through Summit College, where this year he is teaching two sessions of a basic chemistry labo- ratory. Over the years, he has taught general organic and biochemistry, organic chemistry as well as many other classes. One of the students in his current class is fresh- man Tori Conley, 18, a business major from Can- ton, Ohio. She said she's impressed by Stevens and his energy and love of teaching. "My grandparents are retired and sitting at home just chilling, and he is out- side teaching," she said. "That's really cool." Matisha Steele, 18, a biology major from Cleve- land, said most people wouldn't still be teaching at 93. "He is very knowledge- able," she said. This semester, Stevens is at the University of Akron five hours a week, split evenly between the two labs. But teaching isn't the only activity that keeps him busy. He is a choir member at Westminster Presbyterian Church and at the University of Akron Symphony Choir. He gives back in other ways, as well. The father, grandfather and great-grandfather reg- ularly visits the sick at the Rockynol Retirement Community, where he resides in the independent- living section. And he gives back through the Dr. Henry C. and Mrs. Jean Stevens Chemistry Fellowship he established in 2006 — about a year before his wife died. The foundation is designed to attract high- ly qualified students to the university's doctoral pro- gram in chemistry. Every year, about $2,000 is given to Univer- sity of Akron students, he said. University officials said $14,000 has been awarded since the fellow- ship was established. Every year, he said he invests the money that he is required to take out of his IRA back into the fel- lowship. Lori Kraft, associate professor of general tech- nology in Summit Col- lege's Department of Engi- neering and Science Tech- nology, said she hopes she is as active as Stevens when she is in her 90s. "He is an inspiration," she said. "He told me the kids make him feel young, so I think that is a big motivating factor to have him come back to the lab every week." Stevens said the bottom line is he likes to stay busy. "I'm a person who wouldn't sit around," he said. "I need to do some- thing. ... The idea of sitting in front of the tube and having nothing to do does- n't appeal to me." Cyber crooks target those looking for love on line By Claudia Buck McClatchy Newspapers SACRAMENTO — It started so sweetly. She was a lonely Yuba City widow, looking for conversation online. He was an Auburn architect, divorced with two teenagers and a job that took him overseas. Slowly, he reeled her in, wooing her by phone and email with endearments and romantic promises of their life together. "He was very smooth," said the woman, who asked that her real name not be revealed because she is embarrassed, and whose story was confirmed by the FBI. "It was 'Honey' this, 'Honey' that. 'I love you so much.' ... He told me God meant for us to be togeth- er." A retired nurse whose physician husband had died three years earlier, she believed "Marcello" when he professed love. And she believed him when the sto- ries started: when he flew to Switzerland for business and a colleague was injured, when his bank wouldn't let him access his account, when his diabetic daughter needed a kidney transplant, when he was hospitalized for a brain injury, even when an Italian mobster kidnapped him FINDERS CHECK OUT OUR NEW INVENTORY KEEPERS Thrift & Antiques Tue-Sat: 10am-5pm In the Frontier Village Shopping Center 645 Antelope Blvd. 530 527-7798 and demanded ransom money. Looking back, she says, it all sounds completely unbelievable. There were so many red flags, but at the time, her heart con- vinced her otherwise. She began wiring money to cover one finan- cial emergency after anoth- er. "It was always that he needed one more little bit of money. ... It never ended. Once you're under their spell, you can't stop." It started in June 2009 and ended nearly a year later when she discovered her Auburn architect was actually a 29-year-old Nigerian. She was "flab- bergasted." She was also out $500,000. Known as a "romance scam," this type of fraud has been around for decades but has accelerated with the proliferation of online dating and social media sites. Based mostly in Nige- ria, Ghana, England or Canada, these romantic predators prowl for prospects on dating sites, chat rooms, military sites and social media venues, according to the FBI. Working from Internet cafes, they pose as U.S. cit- izens whose work or fami- ly emergencies require travel overseas. Their tar- gets are typically women, in their 40s to 60s, often widowed, divorced or dis- abled. In every case, their per- sistent sweet-talking — always online, never in per- son — eventually leads to money-stalking. "It's an emotionally dev- astating scam," said Kim Garner, vice president of global security with Mon- eyGram.com, a wire trans- fer company that routinely contacts people — mostly women — whose transac- tions appear to be possible fraud by a romantic pur- suer. Last year, she said Mon- eyGram refunded $13.75 million involving 4,880 transactions that were iden- tified as romance scams. In general, romance scams may be a tiny teardrop in the online crime bucket. In 2010, IC3, the federal government's Inter- net Crime Complaint Cen- ter, reported 303,800 com- plaints of online fraud, its second-largest tally ever. But the exact number of romance scams is difficult to determine, IC3 officials say, because the incidents often get reported as ID theft or other types of online fraud. Regardless, romance scams are vastly underre- ported, said Kevin Baker, a white-collar crimes expert in the FBI's Sacramento office, primarily because of people's embarrassment over being duped. The problem is so per- vasive that the government of Ghana, on its U.S. embassy website, warns Americans about sending money to Ghana residents they've never met who "profess friendship or romantic interest over the Internet." Too often, the embassy noted, the online encoun- ters move into "love at warp speed" but ultimately degenerate into requests for money: medical problems requiring a loan, promised repayment from an inheri- tance of gold/gems, airline tickets to visit the United States, bribes to immigra- tion officials. If you do lose money, it notes, "your chances of getting it back are almost nil. This type of crime is not a priority for local police, even if they had the resources to tackle it. The embassy can offer a sym- pathetic ear but, often, little else." And in a doubly cruel twist, some romance fraud- sters strike twice. After vic- tims confront the scammer or threaten to call police, they start getting phony calls, supposedly from law enforcement, requesting a fee to initiate a criminal investigation. "It's all about the money. Nothing else. They have a million schemes up their sleeves," said the FBI's Baker. Romance scams are extremely difficult and labor-intensive to investi- gate, said Baker. The scam- mers use prepaid cell- phones that can't be traced. They operate out of Inter- net cafes, using email addresses that are faked. "If it was a terrorist bombing, we'd have every FBI expert in the country working on it. But when you're talking about thou- sands of these ... cases being reported nationwide, we just can't possibly spend the resources," said Baker. "It takes extra manpower tracing money, emails or people and unfortunately we have to prioritize." Red Bluff Healthcare Center is pleased to announce that Shirley Wilson is our Employee of Honor in the category of Speedy Feet. "She is always quick to see a need and be there to resolve it. Not only does she love the residents and staff, but she and Josh love their precious Bella who will soon celebrate her first birthday. We at RBHC are very thankful for Shirley's excellent service for the last 5 years." 530-527-6232 555 Luther Road. Red Bluff