
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, September 23, 1993                   TAG: 9309230171
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Short

MCCOMAS CONTINUES RECOVERY AFTER COLON SURGERY AT DUKE

Five days after undergoing surgery to remove a cancerous growth from his colon, Virginia Tech President James McComas continues to recover in a North Carolina hospital, a university official said Wednesday.

Surgeons at the Duke University Medical School operated on the 64-year-old university chief Friday for what a spokesman described as a malignancy in his colon.

Since then, Tech officials have received no new information on McComas' long-term prognosis and treatment plan, said David Nutter, a university spokesman.

"He's up and about and is still keeping apprised of developments here at the university," Nutter said.

McComas spoke by telephone earlier this week with Fred Carlisle, Tech's provost and senior vice president, Nutter said.

Carlisle, who is in charge during McComas' absence, said the president told him he had walked, with some assistance, for about a half-mile around the perimeter of his hospital floor, Nutter said.

McComas will miss the meeting set today between Gov. Douglas Wilder and Virginia's public college and university presidents.

Carlisle will attend instead, with Tech Executive Vice President Minnis E. Ridenour and Henry J. Dekker, vice rector of Tech's board of visitors, Nutter said.

Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.

by CNB