'I'm a very lively renaissance man'

The school was atop a hill, and Charles Joseph Smith remembers looking down onto Chicago's Beverly neighborhood and wanting more.

"I wanted to go to regular school so badly," he said, thinking back to his time as a student at the Beacon School for children with special needs.

Also on this date

• Slight Medicare boost helps rural hospitals survive, grow
• Gibson hospital thriving — and proud
• Second time around the block for Orchard Downs
• UI project brings whole new world to African nation
• University eyes potential partnership with academy
• House fire offers lesson in proper disposal of ashes
• Man reports robbery at gunpoint
• Venture company sees half its firms mature
• It's your business: Schnucks' remodeling to broaden its menu
• Obituaries

» More