Town honors fallen IDS alum

In Shelbyville, Ind., middle and high school classes let out early Wednesday. The mayor's office shut its doors at 1 p.m. And an entire town stopped to remember a city council member, state representative and longtime teacher -- IU grad and former IDS sports editor W. Roland Stine.\nStine, 62, died Thursday, when a pickup truck crossed the center line of State Road 44 and hit his car head-on. The driver of the pickup had a blood alcohol content of .21 percent, more than twice the legal limit.\nAn hour earlier, Stine had voted for a failed proposal to increase prison time for first-time intoxicated drivers who kill.\nStine had been a state representative for only three months, but his impact -- especially on young people -- had been profound.\n"Everyone in the office loved him," said Bridget Bobel, his Statehouse assistant.\nBefore he represented the Shelbyville community at the Statehouse, Stine taught in the Shelbyville Central School system and served on the Shelbyville City Council.\nBut when Stine attended IU in the late 1950s and early 1960s, his dream was to be a sports writer.\nIn a letter to journalism professor Owen Johnson, Stine remembers how telephone operators answered the IDS phone with "Beat Purdue" the week before the Bucket game. He remembers an airplane from Purdue dropping flyers over campus that said, "Crybaby Dickens Purdue will Beat Your Chickens." And Stine was there the night Jimmy Rayl scored 56 points in a Hoosier basketball victory over Minnesota.\nThose days at IU were among his fondest memories.\nAfter graduation, The Indianapolis Star told Stine to come back in 10 years when he had some experience, so he took a position as a teacher in Shelbyville.\nHe taught there for 40 years.\n"He was the most popular teacher here," said Shelbyville Middle School Principal Denny Ramsey. "He had a way of reaching students on more of a personal level."\nAbout 2,000 former students and friends attended a memorial service for Stine Wednesday at Shelbyville Middle School.\nAt the memorial, Shelbyville Mayor Frank Zerr said "every superlative adjective that could be thought of" had been mentioned in the last few days.\nStine and Zerr were on opposite ends of the political spectrum -- Stine a Republican, Zerr a Democrat. They were also on opposite ends of an in-state rivalry -- Stine was an IU grad, Zerr earned a Purdue degree.\nAnd they were next-door neighbors for 17 years.\n"He was a truly dedicated man who truly loved his family and loved his community and loved the state of Indiana," Zerr said in a phone interview after the memorial. "He'd always told me he never wanted to live anywhere else"