DATE: Friday, May 30, 1997                  TAG: 9705300746

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: Staff writers Matt Dolan and Janie Bryant, and The Associated

        Press, contributed to this report.

                                            LENGTH:   70 lines

HAMPTON ROADS [BRIEFS]

NORFOLK

Home Buyers Fair aims to make buying a house easier

Becoming a homeowner might be be easier after the Home Buyers Fair, designed to link prospective buyers with financial counselors, mortgage lenders, builders, realty agents and affordable-housing developers.

The fair will be held Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. at Webb Center at Old Dominion University.

Sponsors and participants will have informational displays available, and entertainment will be provided for children.

The fair will be free and open to the public.

The fair is a kick-off to HomeNet - Norfolk's Campaign for Home Ownership Network. HomeNet is a partnership of residents, businesses, housing developers, realty agents and public agencies committed to strengthening Norfolk's neighborhoods through home ownership.

Qualified participants will have a chance to buy a house in one of the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority's active conservation areas for $1. Restrictions apply.

Norfolk Collegiate teachers receive national recognition

Two teachers at Norfolk Collegiate School have been selected from a national applicant pool to attend summer study opportunities supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Sharon Moan will participate in ``The 20th Century Segregated South through Autobiography'' at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and Racquel Yerbury will attend ``Laws, Justice and Morality'' at Amherst College.

Both will return to Norfolk Collegiate in fall.

The endowment is a federal agency that supports seminars and institutes at colleges and universities so teachers can study with experts in humanities disciplines. Teachers selected receive $2,500.

Former union leader admits embezzling $40,000

A former union local president pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to a charge that he embezzled almost $40,000 from the United Paperworkers International Union.

William Marland Ward, 44, of Franklin, was president of the union's Local 783 from 1991 through April 1996. From May 20, 1992, to April 19, 1996, he wrote 172 union checks to himself without authorization, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Ward marked the checks as ``lost wages'' and forged the signature of the local's financial secretary, embezzling $38,840.74, prosecutors said.

A new local president discovered the funds were missing in April 1996.

Following an audit, Ward agreed to repay the money.

Ward could face a maximum prison term of five years and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced Aug. 22.

PORTSMOUTH

Community Trust names new executive director

Nancy Wren, known for conceiving and running a Ladies Professional Golf Association tournament in South Hampton Roads for 13 years, has been named executive director of the Portsmouth Community Trust.

The trust is a nonprofit organization that receives donations to be distributed in the community.

Wren, 56, has been doing volunteer work since the Crestar Classic tournament folded in 1991. She serves on the board of the Future of Hampton Roads and works with several organizations.

She said she will be working in the Community Trust office two days a week and hopes to increase the $1.5 million foundation, which depends on citizen support.

``My focus will be to make the trust better known in Portsmouth,'' she said.

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