"I cannot say more: SF State responds to Kennedy Assassination" from the "1964 Franciscan" yearbook (pages 78-79) (Updated over a year ago)

You can view this bundle in the SFSU Photographic Timeline Project collection area.

Photographic spread about San Francisco State College's dramatic initial response to the news of assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 with a spontaneous outpouring of emotion. Classes emptied. As students, faculty, and staff numbering about 4,000 (pretty much the whole campus) moved towards Speakers Platform on the Quad. There was a strange hush as everyone congregated at the Speakers Platform where Joseph Partansky (Class of '65) quickly connected a radio to the loudspeaker system. Shortly after SFSC President Paul A. Dodd addressed the crowd and left the podium, radios and the throngs were silenced by poignant strains from a lonely trumpeter named Marvin Besmer, who played a solemn tribute to the late President. Besmer's trumpet sang Aaron Copeland's "Fanfare for the Common Man."

Tags: john f. kennedy assassination , joseph partansky , marvin besmer , paul a. dodd , san francisco state college , speakers platform , students respond to kennedy assassination , the quad

Added to SFSU Photographic Timeline Project on May 18, 2018.

Related Items

"Speakers platform opens to debate" from the "1963 Franciscan" yearbook (page 134) Students gathered at the Speakers Platform San Francisco State College Remnants from a gathering at the Speakers Platform Class registration at San Francisco State College

Information

  • Creator: Associated Students of San Francisco State College
  • Date: 1963-11-22
  • Title: "I cannot say more: SF State responds to Kennedy Assassination" from the "1964 Franciscan" yearbook (pages 78-79)
  • Description: Photographic spread about San Francisco State College's dramatic initial response to the news of assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 with a spontaneous outpouring of emotion. Classes emptied. As students, faculty, and staff numbering about 4,000 (pretty much the whole campus) moved towards Speakers Platform on the Quad. There was a strange hush as everyone congregated at the Speakers Platform where Joseph Partansky (Class of '65) quickly connected a radio to the loudspeaker system. Shortly after SFSC President Paul A. Dodd addressed the crowd and left the podium, radios and the throngs were silenced by poignant strains from a lonely trumpeter named Marvin Besmer, who played a solemn tribute to the late President. Besmer's trumpet sang Aaron Copeland's "Fanfare for the Common Man."
  • Type: Photographic spread
  • Format: TIFF
  • Source: University Archives
  • Temporal Coverage: 1963-1964
  • Rights: Public
  • Publisher: San Francisco: San Francisco State Teachers College Associated Students
  • Contributor: Meredith Eliassen

Content

Statistics

  • Views: 3923 (3923 for this version)

Version history

Import from CMS.
Update by DIVA Digitization Team over a year ago
Import from CMS.
Update by DIVA Digitization Team over a year ago