Faces Profile : Bill Oram

by Lucas Hamilton

A hot job, a hot town and some cold contest cash left senior print student Bill Oram feeling like he had a fair to partly superlative summer.

Despite two or three car breakdowns and constant humidity, Oram enjoyed interning for the Austin-American Statesman. Austin, Oram said, “may be the coolest town in the world.”

“It’s one of the towns most friendly to people in their twenties,” said Oram, though he cited as the one exception a mechanic who wouldn’t give him the 20 percent discount he had hoped for on all those auto repairs.

Oram also won one of seven Jim Murray Memorial Foundation Scholarships over the summer. Students from 28 participating universities compete annually in an essay-writing contest, from which seven winners are chosen. Each winner receives a $7,500 scholarship award, given in memory of renowned Los Angeles Times sportswriter Jim Murray.

Oram said he was looking forward to attending the Foundation’s October award banquet in Los Angeles. Boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard will also be honored as with one of the Foundation’s annual “Great Ones” awards during the same ceremony.