A retired local history professor and author remembers, 56 years ago today, when America was stunned by the assassination of President John Kennedy in Dallas.
Dr. Kerry Trask is an Ontario, Canada native, and he tells SeehaferNews.com, he was a 21-year-old sophomore at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota when the unthinkable happened.
He recalled “I had just finished lunch and I had returned to my room before going to class in the afternoon. A guy named Munson came upstairs and knocked on my door. I opened it and he said ‘The President’s been shot!’ I said ‘Come on Munson, stop making a bad joke.’ He insisted and said to turn on the radio. So we turned on the radio and I couldn’t believe it.”
Trask says the only thing he can compare it to was watching the airplanes hitting the World Trade Towers on 9-11. He said “There was a real sense of disbelief about it, but it became something we had to accept. It was undeniable.”
The local historian recalls that in those times, politics was a pretty civil process. He recalled that “Everyone I went to college with was very idealistic but in a positive way.” They all wanted to make a difference, and that’s why he believes a lot of them went into education and medical fields.
Trask added, “we were eager in wanting to make the world a better place.”