Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 8, 1990 TAG: 9006070195
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: NEAL THOMPSON NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Another of his loves was education, said his widow, Rosalie Jurisson. Her husband gave money to help people he knew get through college.
"He was always anxious for kids to get through school," she said. "He had to struggle getting through school himself, so he knew what an education meant."
Jurisson's love of jogging and his belief in education will be remembered Saturday morning when more than 200 area joggers race 5 kilometers in the ninth annual Dr. D.B. Jurisson Memorial Run.
Money collected from entry fees will go toward a memorial scholarship fund in Jurisson's name.
The race begins at 9 a.m. at Town Square near the courthouse. Runners can sign up until 8:45.
"I can't think of a nicer way to remember him," Rosalie Jurisson said this week.
D.B. Jurisson died in February 1981 after being hit on the head as he jogged home from work. It was about 7:30 at night and he was less than a block from his home on West Main Street when someone apparently jumped him and robbed him.
Jurisson died two weeks later at Roanoke Memorial Hospital. He was 57. Christiansburg investigators ruled his death a homicide and it remains one of only two unsolved slayings in the town.
Rosalie Jurisson said she still hopes a suspect will be found. She also hopes the annual memorial race may someday jar someone's memory and provide police with a clue to help them solve the seemingly unsolvable case.
"There's always that hope," she said.
"That's one of the reasons we keep this thing going," said Frank Hubbard, who helped start the annual race a few months after Jurisson's death. He said 175 to 225 runners enter each year.
"It's just gotten bigger and better every year," he said, and this year he hopes for 250 runners.
Every dollar of the $8 entry fee goes to the scholarship fund. And each year, two $250 scholarships are given to local high school students - a boy and a girl - interested in medicine or dentistry.
"My husband was real interested in education," said Rosalie Jurisson, who plans to greet runners at the finish as she has every year. "I think this would have pleased him."
D.B. Jurisson was a quiet but generous man, his widow said.
He was a Christiansburg Presbyterian Church deacon, a Kiwanian and a founder of the Montgomery County Taxpayers Association, which monitored local government spending.
Besides donating money to education, Jurisson also gave free dental care to the elderly.
Donations to the Jurisson scholarship fund over the past nine years total about $10,000, Hubbard said. And about $4,250 has been paid out to students.
About $6,000 remains in the fund, but no donations from local businesses came in this year. Hubbard fears that unless they find a corporate sponsor for next year's race, they won't be able to continue.
Hubbard said donations are still being sought and can be sent to: Dr. D.B. Jurisson Memorial Scholarship, P.O. Box 582, Christiansburg, Va. 24073.
by CNB