Foto Flashback Friday: Dad’s Involvement in May 4, originally uploaded by Mom2One.

Whenever I think of May 4, 1970, I inevitably think of my father. You see, my dad was not only a professor at Kent State University when the May 4 shootings occurred, he was very involved in May 4 remembrances afterwards. As the above article indicates (if it’s too difficult to read, I can write out the text), Dad was instrumental in getting a May 4 memorial marker installed in the parking lot where the shootings took place. In fact, people won’t know this because my father truly believed that the marker wasn’t about him, but he ordered the marker before he had raised any money for it, a fact that made my mother more than a little nervous. He was sure, though, that he and the committee that he formed would raise the money for the marker. Dad had belief, something that he’s tried to impart to me even since his death in 1988 (that’s actually true and something I’ll have to blog about sometime).

My father was a man who just didn’t think of all of the reasons why things couldn’t be done. He simply decided to do something and then figured out how he could do it; such was the case with the memorial marker. He also didn’t follow the “proper channels” a lot of the time — this often didn’t gain him many friends in university administration, but did gain him a great deal of respect and support among his colleagues and students. I only wish I had the amazing courage that he showed during his time as an academician.

There is now, of course, an official May 4 Memorial at Kent State University, but it took years for the University to plan and implement an official memorial. Until then, this marker served as the unofficial memorial. It’s still the ending point for the candlelight vigil each year, and simply reads:

In Loving Memory
Of
Allison Krause
Jeffrey Miller
Sandra Scheuer
William Schroeder
May 4, 1970

Dedicated May 4, 1971
By B’nai B’rith Hillel
Rededicated May 4, 1975
By Members Of The
Kent State University Faculty

Trent Pheifer, “Memorializing May 4,” Daily Kent Stater/Stater Online, May 3, 2007
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Part of Foto Flashback Friday.

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