Law dean always in nick of time

BRADENTON, Fla. -- For such an expert in the written law, Frank Walwer had a lot to learn about the unwritten rules of courtship.

"He was never on time," his wife, Mary Ann Walwer, said. "I, on the other hand, was always on time. That pattern would never change over the years."

Not only was Frank Walwer, as a young Columbia University law school dean, tardy on their first blind date, he would later show up late for his and Mary Ann's wedding.

"Now if you asked Frank, he would never admit he was late for anything. He always said that he made it in the 'nick of time,' " Mary Ann Walwer said.

More than 50 years later, she still isn't buying it.

But she never held it against him, because Frank Kurt Walwer -- whether as a husband, father or leader in his field -- did just about everything else right.

Walwer, former dean of the University of Tulsa School of Law, died Jan. 1 after a traffic accident near his home in Bradenton, Fla. He was 79. A memorial service will be scheduled for April, family members said.

Walwer was the dean of TU's law school from 1980 to 1991.

He left TU in 1994 to help start the new Texas Wesleyan University School of Law in Fort Worth, where he was the dean.

Before TU, he was an associate dean at Columbia University School of Law in New York.

Martin Frey, a professor emeritus at the TU law school who was an associate dean under Walwer, was a close friend.

He remembers Walwer as a quiet and humble leader who preferred to deflect attention from himself.

"Frank hid his own birthday," Frey said.

"He didn't want anybody to celebrate it. I may have been the only one who knew it. Frank had his own style as a person and as a leader. He played things close to his vest."

When Walwer moved to Tulsa in 1980, it was his first time to live outside his native New York.

He and his wife, a native of West Virginia, quickly fell in love with the city, she said.

"When we got off the plane on Dec. 17, it was in the high 60s. That was all it took," she laughed.

Mary Ann Walwer said they probably wouldn't have left, but the opportunity to help start a new law school at Texas Wesleyan was too tempting a challenge for her husband.

Frey, who had several Thanksgiving dinners with the Walwers, said his former colleague was a devoted family man.

"I remember that Frank always called his mother 'Mommy,' " he said. "It was sweet and very touching. He was very close to her. He used to go and play cards with her once a week."

According to Bradenton-area news reports, Walwer, who was traveling alone in his car, inexplicably swerved into the path of an oncoming tanker truck, and the two collided head-on.

The truck driver survived with minor injuries. Walwer died later at a hospital.

Survivors include his wife of 49 years, Mary Ann Walwer of Bradenton; one son, Gregory Walwer of Guilford, Conn.; and three grandchildren.


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New state law bans texting

MONMOUTH — Starting Jan. 1 it will be against the law to text on a cell phone while driving in Illinois.
State Farm agent Jon Ferguson said the law will be a good opportunity for parents to talk with their teens about safe and undistracted driving. Being at a stop sign or stop light does not waive the texting restriction.
"Teen drivers are especially impacted due to inexperience in managing distraction while also concentrating on safe driving," Ferguson said.
Warren County Sheriff Martin Edwards said that teens are more likely to text than adults.
"Everybody uses cell phones, but younger people are more engaged in texting," Edwards said.
Be that as it may, the sheriff also emphasized that the new law is directed at all age groups, not just teenagers.
"Anyone whose attention is divided puts others at risk," he said.
Edwards said the probable impetus behind the law was that a pedestrian may have been killed by a driver who was texting.
"It's so commonplace that people drive while talking on the cell phone, and while that's somewhat risky, it's not at the level of texting. It's not unlike trying to read while going down the road," he said.
According to www.edgarsnyder.com, a Pennsylvania injury law firm Web site, in 2007, driver distractions, such as using a cell phone or text messaging, contributed to almost 1,000 crashes involving 16- and 17-year-old drivers.
For those who think experienced drivers aren't affected by text messaging, think again. A truck driver texting while driving is 23.2 times more likely to get into an accident than a trucker paying full attention to the road, according to a study done by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI).
Edwards said even looking down for two seconds is a substantial amount of time.
"It will have an impact on your reaction to oncoming events," he said. "The problem (is) they're looking down. If it's the cause of an accident, that will be another citation, notwithstanding failing to reduce speed (or) running stop a sign."
Studies have found that texting while driving causes a 400 percent increase in time spent with eyes off the road. The study by VTTI also states that for every six seconds of drive time, a driver sending or receiving a text message spends 4.6 of those seconds with their eyes off the road. This makes texting the most distracting of all cell phone related tasks.
Edwards cautioned that the texting ban will be difficult to enforce.
"We might be able to pick it up if they're going slow in town, but on highways, we're not going to detect that unless we're actually following the car," he said. "I would just hope that by virtue of the fact that the law is on the books it would create a sense of caution about it. Nobody should have been doing it anyway — drive or communicate, not both. It does put people at risk."
Edwards and Ferguson both encourage parents to sit down with their teen driver and discuss undistracted driving.
"(Parents can) incorporate it into their overall cautionary advisements to any young driver," he said.


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