The following is a part of a series of historical articles that appeared in Iowa State’s student newspaper. This article is about an attempted murder on the dean of the College of Design . It originally ran in the June 25, 1961, issue of the Iowa State Daily.

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An attempt was made on the life of ISU College of Design Dean Michael Brooks around 10:46 a.m. Wednesday in the administrative offices of the College of Design Building.

The suspect, identified as Thomas Morton Watts, 47, of 113 Shirley Road, Syracuse, N.Y., reportedly walked into Brook’s office, withdrew a rifle from a gift-wrapped box, pointed it at Brooks and fired one round.

Watts is reportedly an assistant professor in the School of Management at Syracuse University in Syracuse, but officials at Syracuse University have not confirmed that report.

Watts was taken into custody Wednesday by Ames City Police and ISU Campus Security. Lyle Hurley, assistant head of security and traffic on campus, declined to go into much detail about the incident, saying an investigation of the incident was still continuing.

Hurley said no injuries were reported and the incident appeared to be “a domestic situation.”

Watts will be charged with assault with intent to commit murder.

He was arraigned before Story County District Associate Judge Gordon Young Wednesday afternoon. The arraignment was scheduled to continue at 8:30 a.m. today. Bond was set at $75,000.

Testimony at the arraignment revealed Watts reportedly entered Brook’s office with a gift-wrapped package.

He introduced himself to Brooks as “Tom Smith” and said, “You remember me, don’t you?”

Watts then reportedly withdrew from the box a .22 caliber Winchester Magnum rifle with nine rounds of magnum hollow points in the gun and fired a single round at Brooks, hitting a steel door behind Brooks.

Brooks grabbed the barrel of the rifle and as Watts tried to raise the rifle again, Brooks pushed the barrel down.

Watts had a knife in a sheath stripped to his right ankle. He also had an additional 39 rounds of ammunition in his coat pocket.

On the fourth floor hallway of the Design Building was found what Watts referred to later as “items of mayhem.”

This included seven boxes of 50 rounds each of .22 caliber hollow points, two two-gallon containers of gasoline, another loaded .22 caliber rifle, and “assorted paraphernalia.”

Brooks, reached at his home early Wednesday, afternoon, said he was “OK, but shaken” over the matter.

Brooks confirmed the report that Watts pointed the rifle at him with the intent to shoot Brooks and that Brooks pushed the gun away.

“After a brief struggle, he let go (of the gun), said ‘OK’ and sat down,” Brooks said. When asked as to whether he knew why Watts made the attempt on his life, Brooks said he had “a pretty good idea,” but preferred not to discuss the matter at this time.