9/18/98
PLEASE NOTE: Ryan will be available for one-on-one interviews with the media from 4 to 5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 21. Reporters and photographers also are welcome to attend the Freshman Year Enrichment class at which Ryan will speak. The class is from 7:10 to 9 p.m. Monday, Sept. 21, in 194 Clippinger. To make arrangements for either option, contact Mary Alice Casey at Ohio University News Services, (740) 593-1890, by 10 a.m. Monday.

ATHENS, Ohio -- Charles C. Ryan, the reporter who covered the true story behind the novel and upcoming film "A Civil Action" starring John Travolta, will visit the Athens campus Monday, Sept. 21.

Ryan, now with Essex County Newspapers in Beverly, Mass., will speak to several groups of faculty and students at the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. His primary role, though, will be as a special guest of the Freshman Year Enrichment course that runs from 7:10 to 9 p.m. Monday in 194 Clippinger Hall. The students of this unique class were assigned to read Jonathan Harr's novel "A Civil Action" this summer and be prepared to discuss the environmental litigation case in class.

Ryan's news stories for the Daily Times Chronical's Woburn, Mass., edition about the working-class families who fought against two large chemical corporations nearly 20 years ago provided the basis for Harr's new novel. The families argued in a nine-year court battle that the companies were responsible for the deaths of several young children who became stricken with leukemia because of the town's water supply, which was contaminated with industrial waste.