Class of 1960 Zoomers, August 14, 2025
Row 1: Marilyn Tompkins Bellert, Fred Elder, Glenna Stearman Park, Dan Tontz; Row 2: Diane Rusch Zinn, David Robinson, Calvin Ross, Lee Ayres; Row 3: Perry Ann Porter, Jane Thompson Olson, Linda Soderberg McKay, Kay Ellen Consolver.
Zoom #41 – On days of tragic events in our nation, where were you and how did it impact your life? Events we remembered included the following:
- John F. Kennedy Assassination, November 22, 1963
- Martin Luther King, Jr. Assassination, April 4, 1968
- Challenger Explosion, January 26, 1986
- Oklahoma City FBI Building Bombing, April 19, 1995
- Columbine High School Massacre, April 20, 1999
- 9-11 Terror Attacks, September 11, 2001
- Hurricane Katrina, August 2005
- U.S. Capitol Attack, January 6, 2021
David Robinson, Wichita KS I was working in a bank in northwest Arkansas in 
November, 1963. When we heard the news, a bitchy woman who worked in the bank said, “Thank God it didn’t happen in Arkansas.” I wanted to smack her.
On 9-11, I was living in California. A friend called from Florida, and he was hysterical, talking about a plane crashing into a skyscraper in New York. I thought, well, that is sad. Then another friend called, so I turned on the TV. I couldn’t watch. It was too upsetting and frightening. I went to my shop and opened up. I did not expect any business, but there were a number of customers. They couldn’t watch either. It was one of those days that none of us will forget.
Dan Tontz, Dallas TX When I heard about the Kennedy assassination, I was in the car with
Paul Lueker and John Benjamin on our way to a gas station. Someone there told us what had happened. We immediately drove back to our fraternity house. It was totally quiet, the TV was on, and we realized just how serious this was. Watching the processional a day later, tears came to my eyes as I watched little John-John salute his father’s casket. We will remember this day the rest of our lives.
The Oklahoma City bombing. where 168 people were killed, had a very big impact on me and my family. The bomber, Timothy McVeigh was executed eight years later. I was working at the Social Security Agency in Dallas and knew many of our employees killed in the bombing. We were called around 4 in the afternoon on that day to assist the Police and Fire officials who were working on identifications of dead bodies. My office had the personnel folders for the 40 employees in Oklahoma City. We looked for factors that would help with IDs. It was grim and nerve-wracking.
I was very familiar with the Oklahoma City building. I had worked there often. The difference for me in this tragedy was up close: this was a wake-up call for federal employees. After that time, I avoided entering government buildings when I could. I hid my government ID. On airplanes, when someone asked what I did, I just said HR. This was a big alert that domestic terrorists were better at bombing than international terrorists. I knew all the little towns where they had made the bombs. They were white supremacist, anti-government fanatics. From then on, there were lots of restrictions in entering federal buildings. Most of my friends were also federal employees. I trusted them but not others. My wife and daughter and I visited the bomb site before they tore down the building. It was quite a moment. My daughter still talks about it. It affected my life. I felt that as a federal employee, I had to be on guard. My wife worked for the IRS. She also understood being a target. In working with citizens, she didn’t use her real name.
Perry Ann Porter, Poulsbo, WA. On 9-11, I was in the Philippines, ready to board a bus to work. A little girl ran out and shouted that somebody had bombed New York. 
All the way to the office, people stopped me to say how sorry they were for what had happened to my country. I had no idea what had happened. At the office, we watched the news on a tiny black and white TV in the far corner of the office. Everybody knew about the crashes before I did.
On the day of the Kennedy assassination, my mom and I were at home getting ready for WSU, where I was going to class and she was teaching. We heard the news on the radio and stayed home to follow it. Everything at WSU was cancelled that day. I especially admired JFK’s establishing the Peace Corps, where I eventually served. My dad was in Dallas, 10 blocks from Dealey Plaza. We didn’t know what had happened to him until much later.
Linda Soderberg McKay, St. Louis, MO When 9/11 occurred, I was on my way to a staff
meeting as director of an educational program in Washington DC. A staff member came in and announced that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. We walked into the room with a television just as the second plane went in. We still didn’t know the details. I had to travel to two cities in Missouri for work before going home. I did watch TV for the rest of the day, which was a blessing. A young teacher in my training workshop said, “I just hope we are all here tonight.” When I got home to St. Louis, I could not turn on the television. I needed quiet and remember planting flowers instead.
When Hurricane Katrina occurred, I was at the U.S. Department of Education. We knew the worst was coming and were waiting for the surge to arrive. Everything stopped for a couple days. Sure enough, the surge was catastrophic. We worked with people far and wide, trying to get resources to schools.
Glenna Stearman Park, Montgomery, MD We were in California on 9-11. Joel 
was home sick, and I was taking care of him. Sitting in the bedroom with him, watching TV, I quietly saw it happen. I was absolutely shocked. A Chinese student whom we had adopted called, and I told him to pack his bags and move into my house. I sent other grad students to talk with him, so he wouldn’t think I was crazy. He and his wife moved in. Another grad student who had gone to New York City for the fall semester also called me and was hysterical. He had come up out of the subway just as a body from one of the towers landed on the pavement in front of him. I urged him to call his family and tell them he was OK.
Calvin Ross, Johnson City, TN When 9/11 happened, I was making rounds at an internal
medical unit at our flagship facility in Johnson City. I saw it on a TV at the nurses station. It was the first time I realized what damage foreign agents could cause inside our own country. I had never thought about that before, and it was hard to take in. I was impressed with the courage and ability to respond by the guys on the third plane in Pennsylvania who rushed the hi-jackers. They saved lives and prevented wider destruction.
When the Challenger exploded, I was in a graduate program in Louisville and serving as the chaplain at a psychiatric center. I recall seeing the explosion on the television in the lounge. Later, I was so impressed with President Reagan’s handling of the incident and his role as consoler-in-chief. His speech, written by Peggy Noonan, was especially sensitive to the children who had viewed the incident. Seeing a teacher as a victim, we wondered what went through the children’s minds.
Nancy Fulton Ingle sent her recollections of The Challenger Explosion. She writes about the shocked responses of her students, many of whose parents worked at Cape Canaveral at the time.
Jane Thompson Olson, Park Ridge, IL. At KU in the fall of 1963, I was student teaching in 4th grade. An intercom announcement told us about the Kennedy assassination. I don’t remember the kids reaction except that they were shocked that a president would be killed. I remember that there was no class for the rest of the day – and no football game.
On 9-11, my husband Paul and I were in Oriental NC getting repair work on our sailboat. We were preparing to leave on a nine-month trip. September 11 is Paul’s birthday. I had arranged for a surprise party in the boat yard. It turned out to be a solemn, quiet time, eating birthday cake. We left on our trip and were on a part of the waterway called the Alligator River. We couldn’t get any news. Suddenly, two jets flew low over our ship. I thought that was IT! We got into Norfolk and anchored there. Navy sailors with machine guns in pontoon boats came up to our boat and questioned us. Why were we anchored in the area? In the morning when we left, a sub was going out and we saw more troops with more submachine guns. They were making sure that no boats were in the harbor that shouldn’t be there. My two boys flew a lot for work, always on American, so I spent time checking on the flight before we put out to sea. This was a horrible time for our country.
Lee Ayres, Fresno CA These were defining events in our lives. When Kennedy was assassinated, I was at KU like Jane. It was an
overcast day. Some senior friends and I had rented a duplex on 19th St. We would party late and get up late. But Steve Clark had risen early to head to the journalism school. He came back to tell us what had happened. It was surreal. The Campanile, a bell tower on campus, droned away all day. I had an exam in a speech class in Strong Hall, but it wasn’t called off, and students were sobbing. Strong Hall is very close to the Campanile. There is no record of how many times the chimes range that day, but they were quite audible in our classroom. My interest in government and politics was inspired by Kennedy and this influenced my future service. I was held to the loss of a vibrant leader. It was quite a formative moment in our young lives.
(Lee sent a map showing how close Strong Hall is to the Campanile.)
When Martin Luther King was assassinated, I was in the Army and ready for a 30-day leave in Panama, but we were required to cancel. We drove to Florida instead. Knowing there was a job opening in the city manager’s office in Titusville, Florida, I checked it out and got an interview. Titusville was not as glamorous. If I had seen it but not interviewed, I might not have applied. Later, I got the job and my experience in Florida changed my life.
Kay Ellen Consolver, Litchfield, CT. In the fall of my senior year at KU, I was living in a sorority. We were in a political science class when the news came in. We talked a bit, and then the professor recommended that we go back home and process what had happened. November 22 was the night of our biggest social event of the year. We decided to call it off, watched TV, and talked. I felt great sorrow due to the fact that President Kennedy had started to mean a lot to me. The next summer, I worked somewhere that advocated for the Peace Corps. I hoped to join. When the FBI came to 
interview, my horrified parents talked me out of it.
The Martin Luther King assassination also had a big impact on me. I was in law school in Wisconsin. I was very alarmed. The next year, I started clerking for the Wisconsin State Supreme Court. When a big march was planned around the capitol, I decided to join the marchers.
On 9-11, I was in the Hague and Amsterdam, speaking at a conference about a business I had helped a friend to start. We were trapped. We couldn’t leave. It was very hard to make a phone call. Many younger people with me were deeply frightened. I spent time with them, helping them get through the experience.
January 6 – Going through the insurrection was terrible. I had lived in DC for many years, as had Linda. Watching the events on January 6 happen reminded me of experiences in Third World.
Fred Elder, Madison WI My story about where I was when Kennedy was assassinated is
on the website. Basically, I was taking an exam, when the professor walked in and told us what had happened. No one cried. Our football game for Saturday was cancelled and we couldn’t go home for Thanksgiving, so we had a poor substitute dinner at KU. Read Fred’s memories of Nov. 23, 1963.
Diane Rusch Zinn, Lawrence, KS Just like, Fred, Kay Ellen, Jane and Lee, I was also in Lawrence when Kennedy was assassinated. However, I was at work at the First National Bank having lunch when a co-worker entered the lunch room and said, “Do you know that President Kennedy has been assassinated?” I naively thought that was the entry line for a cruel joke. The next morning, Dick’s parents drove up from Wichita and stayed for the weekend. We all were glued to the TV coverage of all the events that transpired over that unbelievable time. When the Challenger exploded, Dick and I were in Burlington, VT to see our son Rob play basketball. We were getting dressed to ski at Stowe when we saw the TV release. As with everyone, we were saddened. A friend told me something about the Columbine shooting I didn’t know. It could have been much worse because the perpetrators had bombs set to explode and kill many police officers and others, but somehow that didn’t happen. Little did we know, this was the first of many such incidents to take place in our schools in the future.
Marilyn Tompkins Bellert, Sycamore, IL Like Jane, I was student teaching on Nov. 22, 1963, but in a high school. The class was senior English. After the announcement on the P.A., some of my students wept,
many looked stunned, and others finished their homework. School was let out at noon. I drove back to campus and spent a lot of time watching TV with others throughout the weekend. I saw Jack Ruby shoot Lee Harvey Oswald in real time. It was really a terrible and very sad time for me and for the country.
One of the tragedies that we haven’t talked about today is the Columbine massacre. This was the first major school shooting to which I paid attention. As a former teacher and the mother of three schoolchildren, I was horrified. Today, I am still horrified that our country has failed to solve the problem of school shootings and other mass public shootings. What kind of people are we to allow these terrible events to continue?
Follow-up Comments and Last Words for the Day
Lee – Dan, thank you for your service. As a footnote on the Oklahoma City bombing, I was startled to see that one of my fraternity brothers was the federal judge who did the arraignment of Timothy McVeigh. This connection made it more immediate to me.
Glenna I fear we are entering the next great disaster of our lives. Last night, I watched video of the 10 military policemen on DuPont Circle outside a Latino Club. One man was hassling the officers, but they did not respond. Then 10 more military police showed up. What’s happening in DC is most alarming.
Kay Ellen Thanks to the website crew and the Zoomers and for this moving discussion. What is the future of our Zoom sessions?
Marilyn We are currently planning to hold Zoom sessions at the reunion in September. The last Zoom for which Diane and I will take responsibility will be in October, to debrief about the reunion and talk about how to stay connected. Volunteers are needed to take over the Zooms.
Linda Ditto on how much we enjoy the Zooms and I will help in the future.
Jane asked who is coming to the reunion and thanked the website crew.
Calvin I appreciate the leadership of Marilyn, Fred, and Diane. We know one another better because of the different Zoom themes. I will help with future Zooms. Remember the Shanksville plane in 9/11: Todd Beemer calling, “Let’s roll!”
Lee I loved the geography Perry Ann, Kay Ellen, and Jane provided. Thanks for the trip.
Dan I want to keep the Zooms going and volunteer to help.
David I’m trying to organize things in Wichita for the bus tour. Hall and I have driven it several times and talked about how best to present the changes. On my recent birthday, I had carrot cake at the Drury Broadview. It was delicious!
Glenna It’s time for more carrot cake! I’ve enjoyed getting to know everyone better through the Zoom sessions. Thanks to you all for making them happen.
Perry Ann – Have a great tomorrow, everyone.
Diane Happy August 18 birthday to Marilyn!
September Zoom: We have planned to do at least one Zoom session at the 65th Reunion in September, but 90% of our regular Zoomers will be on site in Wichita. Will anyone Zoom in from a remote location? Let us know!
Next Zoom Session will probably be October 16 at 2 pm Wichita time.
