During Thanksgiving dinner for a group of friends in their home in Istanbul, Turkey, last year, Kay and Eric Farber ’65 noted that the next day would be the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. They asked their guests to recall where they had been on that memorable day. The answers were so vivid that the Farbers invited friends
on their email list the same question.
Here are some of responses they received:
I was a student at Wabash taking an economics test on the upper floors of Center Hall. Someone yelled from downstairs, “The President has been shot.”
—Roger Colehower ’65, Phoenix, AZ
I was in the Goodrich Hall lecture room at Wabash taking a chemistry exam when Professor Edward Haenisch—my faculty advisor—walked into the room with tears in his eyes and said, “Gentlemen, close your Blue Book. President Kennedy has been shot. You should return to your living unit or go to a place where you can find a TV to keep up with this unfolding tragedy.”
He turned around and briskly walked out of the room. There were a few moments of complete silence followed by a mad rush to the door.
Dr. Haenisch was such an imposing figure that to see him crying was truly a shock. Certainly a sad, sad day that changed the United States forever in many ways.
—Skip Craske ’65, Pinehurst, NC
I was at a high school in St. Louis, MO, representing Wabash College as an admissions counselor. I had just commenced
my presentation when the principal walked on stage and announced that President Kennedy had been killed in Dallas.
I felt personally wounded because the idealism that Kennedy embodied had been shattered. I cried. I then drove home
to Southern Indiana, passing through small towns in rural Illinois, and was struck by ugly signs of the John Birch Society attacking President Kennedy, much like the Tea Party partisans attack our President today. My age of innocence was over.
—Steve Coons ’63, Wilmington, NC
I was on the fourth floor of Martindale Hall playing a game of hearts with friends. Someone burst into the room and said the President had been shot. All of us just laughed and told him to stop bullshitting. He shouted, “No, no, no! It’s true. Turn on the news.” Which we did.
“Shock” is the best word to describe my feeling at the time. Luckily back then I wasn’t really political, or I would have ascribed all of this to a conspiracy (the right, J. Edgar Hoover, etc.). I’m still not 100% sure if the government was involved in it or not.
—Kurt Ramig ’67, New York, NY
I was a student at Wabash studying in a rooming house on South Walnut Street. A widow, Mrs. Remley, rented her four upstairs bedrooms to students. Someone had a radio on and the announcement broke in to the programming. We went first to our fraternity and then to the College Chapel. There was no service, just quiet conversation and reflection.
The 10 years following my graduation from high school in 1961 were much different from growing up in the 1950s in rural Illinois: Kennedy’s assassination; the civil rights movement; Martin Luther King’s assassination; Vietnam; civil disobedience; Bobby Kennedy’s assassination; the women’s movement; drugs.
Life became much more complex.
—Allan Anderson ’65, Charleston, NC
I had gotten married that June, Landa and I lived in Speedway, and I was commuting to Wabash. Bob Atkinson and I had just returned to Speedway from Crawfordsville. I turned on the TV as the news about Kennedy came on. I called Landa and told her, and she thought I was joking, until one of her co-workers heard the news on the radio.
I remember watching TV all afternoon and all night. I think the whole country was in complete disbelief that something like that could happen.
—Trippe Matthews ’65, Indianapolis, IN
I was a student in Paris staying at the Pension Loison on the rue du Four in St Germain des Pres when the news came over the radio. Along with others, I went to the American Embassy and stood in the crowd. It felt comforting just to be with other Americans.
—Eric Farber ’65, Istanbul, Turkey