Democrat and Chronicle from Rochester, New York • Page 30

DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE, ROCHESTER. N.Y.. SUNDAY. DECEMBER 21. 1986 Falls sighs in relief at stunt season's end Mmw, FROM PAGE 1B 7 si.

OVER 900 Genuine La-Z-Boys' IN STOCK AND ON SALE has small, well-hidden inlets just above the falls. Another favorite launch spot is a bus parking lot just above the brink of the falls in Ontario. This year's only two stunters were two Niagara University students Harry Kallet, 20, of Syracuse, Onondaga County, and Mike Viscosi, 21, of Scotia, Schenectady County who wanted to be the first two-person team to go over the falls. They made the trip in a vessel built from a sewer pipe, and they were rescued when they got hung up on rocks just above the falls. "We had set patterns in our minds," Viscosi said last week during a telephone interview from Niagara Falls.

He is preparing to return to Niagara University, from which the two were suspended following their stunt. They were fined $156.64 for overtime for police manpower, according to DeMarco. DeMarco and Derbyshire said that Kallet and Viscosi surely would have died had they gone over the falls. A youthful dream "To be perfectly honest with you, I think we would have made it over," said Viscosi, who is majoring in travel and tourism. "We didn't do it for any of the fame or the publicity.

It was something that we both dreamed of," he said. He said it was Kallet's idea to go over the falls. Kallet could not be located for comment. But when Viscosi heard of the idea, he said he told his roommate, "Harry, everybody goes over the falls in a barrel. Let's do it two at a time.

Nobody has done that" Derbyshire, whose office is decorated with photographs of some famous and not-so-famous falls stunters, said the stunts have changed over the years. He said the professional stunters understood the river and falls, unlike these Johnny-come-latelys who try going over the falls for the sake of going over the falls. "It isn't what it used to be," he said. "Most people who do stunts want a little notoriety," said Derbyshire, chief of police for Ontario's Niagara Parks Commission, who is among the delighted. After 29 years of police work at the falls, Derbyshire knows the i likes and dislikes of those people come barreling down the river.

For one thing, they don't like 1 the meager number of visitors that come to the falls during the winter months. So they stay home. "They like the summer, July the i Fourth, the weekends," said Der- byshire of the stunt performers, adding, "You wouldn't get some- body doing it at midnight There would be nobody there to see them. They want to be seen." 1 DeMarco, Derbyshire's counter- part in the New York state parks, agrees. "Look at the numbers," he said.

Of the 10 people who intention- ally have gone over Niagara Falls since 1901, six did it in July, two in August and two in October. i Because it's there "It's like the mountain," said DeMarco, a police officer at the falls for 39 years. "That falls is there and they're going to try it." Derbyshire still cannot understand why some would want to chance death by going over the falls, which have taken the lives of three of the 10 people who have attempted the feat this century. "Some people say there's this attraction that if you stare at the water it draws you into the water," Derbyshire said during a recent interview. "I've stood there longer than just about anybody and it doesn't attract me." And the falls, he said, are not kind to its dead.

All that remained of Charles G. Stephens, who in 1920 became the first stunt performer to die, was his right arm, which still was harnessed in the wreckage of his wooden craft. Ten vears later, George A. Stathakis, a bachelor from Buffalo, suffocated when his barrel became trapped behind the falls and Now available in 100 Nylon Velvet. Style, comfort and value.

Button-tufted back and kick pleat skirt. wedged between rocks below them. When the barrel reappeared, 14 hours later, Stathakis hand was tightly clutched over his mouth and nose, according to reports. And in 1951, Red Hill's barrel broke open when it hit the jagged rocks at the base of the falls. The only contents found in the retrieved barrel were Hill's shoes.

His body was found the next morning near the Canadian shore. Canadian side easier Because of the rockiness of the American Falls, stunters prefer going over the Horseshoe Falls. "The chances of surviving on our side are better," said Derbyshire. But there is still the problem of the dangerous currents behind the falls, which twist and turn and make escape difficult. "We've had suicide victims go back there and not come back for days," Derbyshire said.

Not until the death of Hill in 1951 did legislators make it a crime to perform a stunt over Niagara Falls without permission on both sides of the border. A stunt without permission is a misdemeanor in New York and in Ontario. Until then, said DeMarco, "It was pretty much, 'If you want to kill yourself, go The next major piece of falls legislation came in 1982, when the state Legislature passed a law enabling authorities to charge stunters for the cost of rescuing them. "Police and firemen are expected to rescue you for free," said De-Marco. "But when it's into the thousands of dollars and when it's a stunt, then it's not just a rescue." Often, military forces from both nations are required in the costly rescue operations for stunters.

Launches from Ontario Derbyshire said he'd love to have a similar law in Ontario, which not only attracts stunters to its side of the falls, but attracts them to the shores of the Niagara River to cast off in their contraptions. Unlike the wide-open American shore leading to the falls, Canada Bausch's father, John J. Bausch, was co-founder of the firm. "I remember how proud he was of Bausch Lomb and his own contributions to the lenses that were used during World War II," his daughter said. During his career, Mr.

Bahn served as president of the Rochester section of the Optical Society of America and was involved in the Industrial Management Council. He was a past chairman of the council's superintendent, production managers and factory managers section. "His family and in particular his wife of 70 years meant a lot to my father," Hutchins said. "He lived the essence of the good life with a capital and a capital in a religious sense," she added. Mr.

Bahn was an active member of First Presbyterian Church in Pittsford and served as elder. Before that he had held the same position at Third Presbyterian cues was in February 1970, when he saved a 52-year-old woman who had plunged from the Veterans Memorial Bridge. According to newspaper accounts, Mr. Beth heard the woman screaming, hurried down a steep embankment and waded into the river to save her. Known for his congenial manner, Mr.

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W. At Long Pond Opposite Buckman's 227-6660 1 OBITUARIES Carl E. Bahn of Pittsford Carl Edward Bahn, a retired employee of Bausch Lomb died Dec. 10 of congestive heart failure at his Pittsford home. He was 92.

A native of Syracuse, Mr. Bahn retired in 1964 from Bausch Lomb as manager of the instrument division. He joined the firm as a technician after graduating from Cornell University with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1916. He worked at Bausch Lomb for nearly 50 years. He "always was very interested in new optics," said his daughter, Jeanne B.

Hutchins of Brighton. Mr. Bahn was the nephew of Edward and Matilda Bausch. Edward Ronald Beth, restaurateur, 43 Ronald H. Beth of Webster, a local restaurant owner, died yesterday at Rochester General Hospital.

He was 43. Mr. Beth owned Marge's Lakeside Inn, 4909 Culver Road, in Irondequoit, since 1975. The restaurant was opened by his mother, Marge Beth of Rochester, and has been in the family for 25 years. Mr.

Beth more than once used his skills as a swimmer to rescue people, said his wife, Frances. The most celebrated of his res-Shelter group honored Democrat and Chronicle The Rochester Parish Shelter Network has received the Eleanor Roosevelt Community Service Award for 1986. One of 11 organizations in the state to share this year's award, the network is sponsored by three city parishes St. Bridget's, Blessed Sacrement and Corpus Christi. The shelters are set up in parish owned buildings and provide meals and housing for the homeless.

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461-9320 EXT. 10 Church on East Avenue, where he was also clerk of the session, a post similar to church secretary. "Carl Bahn was one of those persons without whom no voluntary organization church or otherwise makes a go of it," said the Rev. Richard Kesel of First Presbyterian Church. "He was a man of very deep faith and commitment to the church." Mr.

Bahn was also a strong supporter of his alma mater and was elected to life membership of the Rochester Cornell Club. He also had been a member of the Monroe Golf and Country Club. In addition to his daughter, Mr. Bahn is survived by his wife of 70 years, Marie Hall Bahn; three other daughters, Rosemarie Rayn-or of Tequesta, and Elizabeth Edgerton and Ruth Strasen-burgh, both of Pittsford; a sister, Doris VandeCarr of Brighton; 11 grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren. "He was a man among men a magnet who drew people to him," said Eric Ruhle, a regular at Marge's.

"His favorite song was My Way, and that's the way he lived." Mr. Beth graduated from Aquinas Institute in 1961. In addition to his wife of 22 years and his mother, Mr. Beth is survived by a daughter, Francine, who lives at home; a sister, Dar-lene Beth Ciezlinski of Rochester; and a brother, Gerry of Rochester. Kevin Hicks Mikimoto Monroe Ave Th Plaza At Clover Evenings Sunday 12-5 mm)) American Traditional charm with tufted winged back, roll arms and skirt.

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