Robert Crane, Oral History

 

Recorded: January 31, 2022

Interviewed by: Elizabeth Campion

Transcribed by the Kent State University Research & Evaluation Bureau

 

[Interviewer]: This is Liz Campion, May 4 Archivist, speaking on Monday, January 31, 2022. As part of the Kent State Shootings Oral History Project, we are recording an interview over the telephone today. Could you please state your name for the recording?

 

[Robert Crane]: My name is Bob Crane.

 

[Interviewer]: Thank you, Bob. [00:00:23] I would like to begin with some brief information about your background, so we can get to know you a little bit better. Could you tell us where you were born and where you grew up?

 

[Robert Crane]: I was born in Toledo, Ohio, July 1, 1950. And I grew up in a small, rural town called McComb, Ohio, in Northwest Ohio.

 

[Interviewer]: Okay, thank you. [00:00:52] When did you first come to Kent State University?

 

[Robert Crane]: Well, I first came to Kent State probably in 1967. Yeah, probably ’67, just for a campus visit.

 

[Interviewer]: [00:01:12] And what year did you start at Kent State University as a freshman?

 

[Robert Crane]: As a freshman, I started in the fall of 1968. Did all the freshman orientation and all that, probably there in the summer, and then I returned in the fall for the first semester.

 

[Interviewer]: So, what was the deciding factor for you to come to Kent State?

 

[Robert Crane]: Well, as a seventeen, eighteen-year-old, my deciding factor was the geography. I wanted to go to some place that was a little bit further away from where people normally went to school. And so, it had a School of Business, so, I did that.

 

[Interviewer]: And was business your major as a student?

 

[Robert Crane]: Yeah, I ended up with management science as a major out of the School of Business and then, military science out of ROTC.

 

[Interviewer]: [00:02:31] What made you decide to join the ROTC?

 

[Robert Crane]: Well, I decided to join the ROTC, and I didn’t join the ROTC until late in my freshman year. And I joined it principally because one of the things I wanted to do when I—I was going to try and walk on and play football, but I kind of psyched myself out on all of that. So, I wanted to do something and I wanted to—and I had looked at the fraternities and I had gone to some of those things, and I had decided that ROTC seemed to fit my personality more than anything else.

 

[Interviewer]: Did you have any family members that had previously been in the ROTC or that had served in the military?

 

[Robert Crane]: No, I didn’t have anyone that was in the—family members that had gone through the ROTC. My father was part of the generation in World War II. And he had gone through and became a second lieutenant in the Army through officer candidate school [00:04:01] during the war. And so, I had some introduction of what it would’ve entailed just because of his experiences.

 

[Interviewer]: In reading some of the Daily Kent Staters, I saw that there was a social fraternity of the Army ROTC called the “Pershing Rifles.” [00:04:26] Can you talk a little bit about that?

 

[Robert Crane]: Yes. So, I was the, I joined the ROTC and, you know, back then, in ’68, it was just transitioning from either having to do athletics, or you had to do ROTC, and the whole thing. Maybe a lot of people don’t realize is you had to do one or the other. So, anyhow, I had joined ROTC and I was looking around as to what to do next, and Pershing Rifles is a fraternity through the ROTC program. It was sort of a little bit more, what would be a good word, immersive Than just showing up on a Tuesday and Thursday. And this was a little bit more competitive, a little bit more organized. It had a, there was a fraternity element involved in it, so there was something that you could join and be a part of, as part of not just being just a student on the campus.

 

[Interviewer]: Can you describe what the fraternity did in terms of competition?

 

[Robert Crane]: Oh, yeah, competition. Yes. Well, one of the legs [00:06:04] of the fraternity was they would have you participate in drill competitions. Now, drill competitions is not the hammer and jack type of thing. This was where you would basically have a routine, much like what you see today in a lot of your cheerleading competitions where they have routines. Drill competition is much the same, is you have a routine of a series of things that you would go through. And then, you would be marching in as a group and you would be judged based upon how well you performed. You would do some at the squad level, which is basically six to eight people, all the way up to a platoon level, which could entail twenty or twenty-five people.

 

[Interviewer]: Wow.

 

[Robert Crane]: Yep. It was kind of interesting. It was a lot of fun. I did do, much like- you would travel to go to some of these competitions and things like that. You weren’t compensated for anything. So, we all slept in a bunch of hotel rooms.

 

[Interviewer]: [00:07:39] With the political climate of the late ‘60s, early ‘70s, what was your sense of how students perceived the ROTC at that point?

 

[Robert Crane]: In ’68 and ’69, I think most people would tolerate it to a large extent. I guess would be, and that they also had gone from ’68 to ’69 if my memory is correct. They used to go out onto The Commons of the ROTC. And that’s where they would do their drills, on Thursday or something like a Tuesday, or. And you would wear a uniform. And because of the visibility and the political environment, they actually stopped doing those.  Because it was an irritant to some people.

 

Like I said, back then, you had a choice you could either, you had to do ROTC I think for a year, or you had to do some athletic classes. And, so, you had a few people just trying to fulfill their requirement.

 

[Interviewer]: Yeah, those are quite the choices.  Be an athlete or somehow end up in the ROTC? I mean, what an option there.

 

[Robert Crane]: Oh, yeah. And, and it was a sexist thing in that it was really oriented towards the boys.

 

[Interviewer]: Right. Absolutely. [00:10:01] How did you view the protests and the Vietnam [War] when you first arrived on campus?

 

[Robert Crane]: Well, when I first arrived on the campus, the war protests didn’t seem to be the number one area of focus. Back then, the Black movement was coming to the forefront. And especially my freshman year I remember talking, being part of having various protest events of the Black movement. And the students who had felt like they were being discriminated against. That, really, the freshmen, my freshman year was really more of a focus on the anti-war and it wasn’t until late in my freshman year, maybe? And then, the fall of ’69 that the Students for Democratic Society [SDS] and all of them became more active than what I remember.

 

[Interviewer]: [00:11:54] How would you describe those attitudes or moods among the students in the spring of ’70?

 

[Robert Crane]: It was a mood of—so, I lived in Dunbar Hall my sophomore year. And at that point in time, I was not only in ROTC, but I was also a member of Pershing Rifles, so everybody knew who we were, which was kind of a unique experience to be able to go into a dormitory and people knew that you were an ROTC person, you were a Pershing Rifle person. And everyone would get together and they would look at their draft cards [00:12:53] and they would share stories and that. I didn’t have anybody that was actually confrontive or confront me in the dormitories or going to my classes. Pretty much, if we were doing an organized event, the protests would be aimed at whatever activity was being done at the time. But at that point in time, there was nothing that people were coming up to you in your dormitory and protesting in front of you personally.

 

[Interviewer]: [00:13:51] How politically involved or active would you describe yourself at the time, and did you have any chance or desire to participate in those protests or political organizations? It’s a heavy question.

 

[Robert Crane]: Yeah, a heavy question, I was nineteen years old, twenty years old. I didn’t have any desire to participate in their protests or demonstrations. Nor did I feel compelled to go up to them and tell them that they were wrong or anything like that or you shouldn’t be doing that. Certainly, we had discussions about the war that was going on in the dormitories, in the ROTC classes and then, the business classes. But in terms of getting involved with them, I didn’t do that. I didn’t do that until much later on after the shootings and all that. Then I got involved, but that was more towards helping the university than anything else.

 

[Interviewer]: [00:15:31] Do you happen to remember the environment in your classes in that spring of 1970?

 

[Robert Crane]: Yeah, everybody was talking about, you would go into a class and you would be talking and you would be talking about what’s going on through the day or this and that. Somebody might talk about, I don’t know, one of the big SDS people coming in or something. But it was fine, I don’t know that anybody really cared. It was just sort of a side of what you were doing for the day.

 

[Interviewer]: Right, right. [00:16:27] Prior to the shootings, what was your sense of how local Kent community members perceived the students?

 

[Robert Crane]: Well, I bet Kent never really did … in the first couple years. I mean they really didn’t—it’s another college town. It’s like Oxford, Ohio, where Miami [University] is. You talk to the residents there, and it’s one of more tolerance than anything. And I don’t believe that they were real happy with the protests. Here again, we had people that were, that fought in World War II, fought in Korea. They remember those things. And you have these protests going on, so they weren’t real happy about that whole situation.

 

[Interviewer]: That makes sense.

 

[Robert Crane]: Yeah. Pershing Rifles had a house off campus and you so you had the opportunity to talk to people. That’s generally what they would tell you about.

 

[Interviewer]: The house that you mentioned, was it just [Pershing Rifles] members living there or who, what type of people were living at that house?

 

[Robert Crane]: Well, that was the house that, there was a group of Pershing Rifles guys that lived there. Basically, what we called our fraternity house, it was off campus. It was a typical college student house, it was ready to fall down.

 

[Interviewer]: That sounds about right.

 

[Robert Crane]: Yeah. Nowadays, people would look at it say, Oh, don’t go in there.

 

[Interviewer]: [00:18:55] Prior to the shootings, when the National Guard was called onto campus, what was your sense of how students perceived the ROTC students versus how the National Guard may have perceived the ROTC students?

 

[Robert Crane]: By the time that spring, the Army ROTC program had fallen, and the Air Force ROTC program. They had fallen to very low numbers. I want to say we might have had total enrollment in the Army ROTC of eighty, maybe?

 

[Interviewer]: Oh, that is very low.

 

[Robert Crane]: Yeah, and I’m just really guessing. So, the perception of the other students really all depended on who you were talking to. I mean, most of us, we all had student deferment of some sort, so that was every motivation to stay in school and if you belonged to ROTC, it was just another motivation to keep you- some people, I’m sure, did that to prolong not going on active duty and being called up and going to Vietnam.

 

The students, by and large—then again, in Dunbar [Hall], I never had any big issues with people getting really excited up to the point of that late April, early May timeframe. And then, when that occurred, politically, the Cambodian invasion and everything occurred, that whole tone in the dormitory changed quite a bit.

 

The National Guard, they didn’t like us, which is a whole another thing. You talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place. These are kids, too, you know? They’re National Guard. And they had been, and I know this after the fact, but they were out driving roads and bridges for a week or a month before, because there was a truck driver strike [editor’s clarification: Teamsters strike] going on. So, they wanted to go home. And they could have cared less about ROTC students.  I guess that would be a nice way to put it.

 

[Interviewer]: In the lead up to that kind of time period between April 30^th and May 4^th, did the ROTC instructors, relay their concerns about the ongoing tension, or did they make it known? Anything you can recall from that time?

 

[Robert Crane]: I think that the biggest advice that they would send to us is just to avoid it all. Don’t get close to it, move, walk around it. Don’t engage, there’s no reason to.

 

[Interviewer]: [00:23:25] Can you walk us through your experiences during the period of April 30^th to May 3^rd, 1970?

 

[Robert Crane]: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I’ll take a sip of coffee.  A lot to unravel.

 

[Interviewer]: Absolutely.

 

[Robert Crane]: Okay. So, on Friday, we were scheduled, the Pershing Rifles—one of the things that we also did is we would we would be an honor guard for a parade or something like that. So, we would, we would send a group of kids to carry the American flag and such in front of a parade. And Saturday was supposed to be, there was a parade and we were going to march it for one of the local communities.

 

So, Friday night, I spent Friday night either in my dormitory or at the Pershing Rifle house getting ready to go do this. So, I never went downtown Friday night, so I was completely unaware of the events that had happened Friday night. I knew, everybody knew of the Cambodian invasion and all that. And everybody knew that people were very upset. I never knew that the riots had occurred, or the demonstration, whatever you want to call them, occurred on Friday night at all, because I was back polishing my boots and doing this and that.

 

Saturday morning comes and we gather. And I really can’t recall the town that we went to. And we went out and we did this parade, people were very nice and all that. Here again, I’m still not aware of what had happened Friday night. But we get back on campus—and I sent you that transcript about the small arms [00:26:29] and all that, the rifles. We put all of our rifles away and back then, some of the ROTC buildings, you could walk over to the Student Union and it was around noon or something like that. It was time for lunch or I was hungry. And so, I walk over to the Student Union and I go through the cafeteria there, and now, I’m wearing my ROTC uniform and I got my Pershing Rifles stuff on, and what have you. And that is the first time I became aware of, something is not right, because I walked into that cafeteria and people started talking. Not at me, but they started whispering. You know when people start looking at you, you can feel the burn in your back?

 

[Interviewer]: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

 

[Robert Crane]: I felt it. So, I’m in there and I thought, Well, this isn’t real good. And so, one of the ladies, must’ve been a manager, she says, “You don’t want to be here. You don’t belong here right now.”

 

[Interviewer]: So, she sensed something was awry?

 

[Robert Crane]: Yes, yes. And she said, because she probably knew more about what had happened Friday night than I did at that point. So, she says, “You need to get out of here right now, because you’re not safe.” And she says, “I’m going to take you through the back way and I’m going to let you out.” Which is what we did. And that was my first encounter that something was not right here. So, I made it back to the dormitory and that’s when we found out about all the riots on Friday night, got my clothes, changed, and everything. So, that was an interesting, that was my first time where I felt like some people just didn’t like you because of what you represent. So, then Saturday night, I’m still in Dunbar [Hall], I’ve got my clothes changed and everything because that’s the night of the fire.

 

[Interviewer]: Yes.

 

[Robert Crane]: And so, we’re all, again, by that time, you couldn’t go downtown or anything. And somebody comes rushing into the dormitory announcing that the ROTC buildings were being set on fire.

 

[Interviewer]: What was your initial reaction to hearing that?

 

[Robert Crane]: Well, my initial reaction was we gather everybody up. Nobody says you have to be intelligent to do these things. Well, what do you do? You gather everybody up and we headed out. We’re going to see this thing. We’re going to see if anybody could do anything. So, off we go. And it’s dark at this point when the fire started. And there must have been four or five of us, maybe? I don’t know. And we get over to Blanket Hill, right? And we’re coming down, I’m going down the hill, and all of a sudden, I have this state trooper in front of me with a sawed-off shotgun. And he’s got it pointed right at my face. See, these are things that you remember. He says, “You take one more step, it’ll be your last.”

 

[Interviewer]: Oh, my.

 

[Robert Crane]: He says, “You turn around and you go back up that hill.” So, being the smart person that I am, I said, “Yes sir.” And I went back up the hill. But that was another one of those moments when you realize how serious everything had gotten and that this was not good. So, we were up on the hill, and you can see the fire. And then we went back to the dormitory, and at that point in time is when we decided that if you were ROTC kids, okay? And there were, I don’t know, maybe ten of us or so in the dorm, I don’t know. That we should round up everybody else just for our own safety. And so, and that’s we did. And that plays down into Sunday, but that Saturday night we had decided that it was probably better if we stick together.

 

[Interviewer]: Yeah, especially considering what was transpiring right in front of you.

 

[Robert Crane]: Right. And so, that’s what we did because there was a group of us. And then, of course then Sunday comes, and we all stayed relatively close to each other Saturday night. And so, a group of us then go down to the, where the fire was and, we meet the military advised teachers [00:34:14] and all that and talked to them. And by that time, the National Guard had surrounded the, formed a barricade and all that. So, to get through that and through their perimeter, you had to get permission to come in, which is what we did. And then, we helped with cleanup. And you’ve got the slugs, as I call them.

 

[Interviewer]: Yeah. [00:34:54] So, I was going to say, can you describe, recently you’ve donated, I believe it was forty-three slugs to the Special Collections and Archives. Can you talk about how you acquired those and where they came from?

 

[Robert Crane]: Yeah, they came from the burnt [ROTC] building. And they were there just because if they would go on a live fire exercise and they would take these things with them, but they were being stored there. So, Sunday, I’m thinking that it probably was Sunday that we helped with the cleanup. And so, I think I described for you that most of these rounds that were in that building, that’s one of the reasons why the fire department pulled away from the fire and part of the reason why the state troopers had pushed to keep everybody further back, is although most of these rounds would bank off the cartridge would come apart from the slug so that it wouldn’t be dangerous. But if one had popped off or something like that, it would have made for a very bad situation. So, anyhow, in this part of our cleanup, we wiped all these things into a pile. And then, we asked if we can take some and they said we could take some. And so, I took these with me, which is sort of a whole other story of itself because I’ve kept them for over fifty years. And I thought, it’s coming up [00:37:26] But that’s their story, they’ve been with me since that time.

 

[Interviewer]: That’s incredible. [00:37:44] When you were in the midst of the cleanup, can you describe the damage to the building? Was it extensive, what was your recollections from that cleanup?

 

[Robert Crane]: Oh, it was totaled, the building was gone. It was absolutely just, went down to the ground. At that time, the burned down ROTC building were old World War II barracks [00:38:15] or buildings. And I don’t know if you, if you’ve ever seen and gone to another campus or what have you, how where some of these buildings are still in use. They’re just, they’re just wooden buildings. There’s nothing much to them. I know University of Cincinnati’s ROTC had, they were still using them, maybe ten years go.

 

[Interviewer]: Oh, wow. That’s pretty recent.

 

[Robert Crane]: Oh, yeah. The buildings that were only supposed to have a lifetime of, what, twenty years, fifteen years?  To get that far, that’s really quite incredible. But they were very old buildings and the wood is very old. And, so, when the fire did occur, it was going to go fairly fast and it was going to be thorough and complete. It was just probably pretty amazing that the other two buildings didn’t catch fire. They had organized us to, to pick things up. How we talked about, we’ve talked about the small arm ammunition. But then, you also had these barrels of weapons, M-1’s, M-14’s that were being stored in there. And during the fire, they were destroyed also, but you had to pick up all those things because you have to account for them, and you don’t want them to leave them laying, of course. So, you had to find those and put them, and I think I told you that the second story that I ran into all of those weapons when I was at, Letterkenny Army Depot. They were laying in the (unintelligible [00:40:47]) small arms that we registered then. Before a national database, a small arm registry, we had established a DOD, a small arm registry, and the first ones that we registered were those weapons that were at Kent State. Makes for a very small world [00:41:14].

 

[Interviewer]: I was just going to say that, yeah. That’s something else.

 

[Robert Crane]: So, we had to do that. And then, you had to pick up whatever you could to salvage and everything. So, that’s what we did on Sunday.

 

[Interviewer]: So, after the cleanup took place, can you describe what campus was like the rest of that evening?

 

[Robert Crane]: Yeah. Well, by that time, the National Guard had moved in and had called, they had declared Martial Law, which was kind of strange onto itself. I don’t know what there are in modern history that we’ve had a town occupied by our own army like we had there in Kent, where you have APCs [editor’s clarification: armored personnel carriers] running through the streets and helicopters. So, it was a very eerie rest of the day. It was a very quiet, as I recall, quiet day in anticipation of what was going to happen. And so, as I could remember, the campus was fairly quiet until they all started gathering. And then, you had the confrontations with the National Guard and the protesters and that. A lot of people had gone out just to watch what was going to happen. And so, you saw people being chased by the National Guard, you had protesters running at night, you had helicopters flying. So, it was a real chaotic mess. Probably the best way to put it.

 

[Interviewer]: [00:43:52] Do you recall prior to May 4^th, learning of a rally that was to take place that day?

 

[Robert Crane]: Mhm. I think it was by word of mouth that they were doing this. We did not go to the rally ourselves. As I said, by that time, everything had been, was starting to boil. And so, people weren’t real happy with us anyhow. And as I said, there was only fifty, eighty of us anyhow. So, they knew who we were and they knew where we lived. So, we wanted to stay together. So, at the time that that demonstration started and then erupted, we had all gathered back into Dunbar [Hall] and we had actually all went into a single room on the second floor where you can, and then, we barricaded the door, because people were pounding on our door trying to do whatever. We had pulled the bench across the door and had taken some things. And then, during the riots, they knew which room we were in, so they could throw things at the window and what have you. It was a very interesting night.

 

[Interviewer]: Yeah, I can imagine. I mean, to have a building that you had spent time in no longer existing, the cleanup, that National Guard coming onto campus, it’s a lot. And I imagine that the tensions were at an all-time high. [00:46:08] Can you walk us through your experiences on the day of May 4, 1970?

 

[Robert Crane]: Oh, yeah. I mean, the one thing, the school had said that they were going to try and remain open, and we were going to have classes. I think that came out Sunday night, or Sunday afternoon, that there would be classes on Monday. So, we all went to classes. I remember going to the National Guard perimeter around the burned down building and going in there. We had an ROTC class, and this is probably the most difficult part.

 

[Interviewer]: Do you want to take a break here?

 

[Robert Crane]: No, I’m okay.  Just a, hold on one second.

 

Bill Schroeder was in that class next to me. And we sat there and we went through the class. And then, I remember having a conversation with him. “Oh, what are you going to do?” And I said, “Well, I think I’m going to stay inside the perimeter for a while here.” And he said, “Well, I’m going to go out and I’m going to go take pictures of everything.” That’s what he did. So, this was just one of those moments-

 

[Interviewer]: It sticks with you.

 

[Robert Crane]: Oh, yeah. So, he did that. Some of us stayed inside the perimeter. It was interesting, just because some people said we had a sniper on one of the dormitories and we had to crawl underneath one of the buildings because we thought they were going to take fire. We had plainclothes men [00:49:32] that were walking through the crowd and they would come up to the perimeter and they’d flash their badges or what have you, to get into the, and they all were armed.

 

Before the shootings occurred, there was already a really tense situation. And like I said, we had gone to our ROTC class and we were inside of the perimeter. So, we saw them forming up and we saw all the crowd in front of the Victory Bell, and they had completely surrounded the perimeter with kids. I mean, you had protesters and then you had everybody that was feistier [00:50:47]. So, you were completely surrounded. And so, and that’s where they tried to break it up a couple times and it was very unsuccessful, and that’s when they decided they would take their platoon and go marching up the hill and go over the hill. And we heard the cracks, and I asked one of the captains what that was, and he knew exactly what that was. He said that they fired their weapons. But we can see them up on top of the hill because we were looking from the burned down building up from that vantage point. So, then they came marching back down and the crowd did not disperse, and, of course, became angrier and then, we had all those situations. And calmer heads prevailed and then, they closed the university and told everybody to go home.  And that’s easier said than done.

 

I mean, when they said the university or campus was closed, we got to leave, we couldn’t leave. I couldn’t leave. I was inside the perimeter. If I walked out at that point, I may not be here or I would be beaten up or something. You know? We had to wait until everybody else was gone. And even then, when we were walking, when I’m walking across The Commons, going up to my dorm, I got chased by a couple guys. One of them had a knife. So, it was crazy.

 

[Interviewer]: It just sounds like complete chaos after-

 

[Robert Crane]: Oh, yeah.

 

[Interviewer]: Do you recall when you, after the initial gunshots between then and when you found out that students had been shot and killed, do you recall that moment?

 

[Robert Crane]: Yeah, we learned very early on. Like I said, we saw the National Guard, the platoon up on the hill. We were probably a third of that distance there. A hundred, 150 yards?

 

[Interviewer]: Yeah. I’m not positive on that. I’m not confident.

 

[Robert Crane]: I’m not positive either. It wasn’t very far. And so, you could see that they were pointing their weapons. And then, there probably was no more than four or five minutes at the most that it started trickling in that these students had all been shot. Probably not even that much. And then, you could hear the sirens come, which was kind of interesting that it took them that long to get there, but-

 

[Interviewer]: Yeah. In addition to William Schroeder, did you know any of the wounded or killed from that day?

 

[Robert Crane]: No, I didn’t know any of them personally. Bill was the only one I knew.

 

[Interviewer]: Do you recall your reaction or the ROTC’s reaction when learning about Bill Schroeder’s death?

 

[Robert Crane]: It was one of shock. Of course, at that particular time, nobody knew who it was that was shot. All you knew was that you had people on the ground. So, I guess the best answer I can tell you on that is I don’t know what their real reaction was because I don’t know that I actually knew until late in the day when we were trying to get off the campus.

 

[Interviewer]: And I know that there were mass crowds trying to leave the university. [00:56:34] Can you describe what the days and weeks were like for you after May 4, 1970?

 

[Robert Crane]: Oh, yeah, because, no, May 4^th itself was just an absolute nightmare for all. We were one of the last people that they let go. We had this mass of people, and they were trying to get everybody to leave on single roads and all that. And we couldn’t get out until the military, the ROTC guys thought it was safe enough for us to get out of there. And then, they allowed us to go. And so, we got back at my dormitory and we only have, what, five minutes, five, ten minutes to grab the things you need and to go. And you’ve got, maybe, four, five guys with you who, How am I going to get out of here? How do you get out of there? Well, I had a real piece of junk car that was in the parking lot. And I said, well, there’s a car with one headlight pointed down, the other one pointed straight up to the right, and I had a piece of ribbon in my window to hold the window up. Oh, it was just, and it ran. So, we all piled into that. Now, you would have thought that you could just head out of there, but you couldn’t do that. You had to go in the direction that they told you to go and they took us to the East.

 

So, again, I had a couple guys that were from Cleveland area, couple other guys from Northern Ohio. And I was lived in Northwest Ohio, and we’re going east. And so, you wanted to turn at some point in time, but they wouldn’t let you turn. And if you needed gas or anything, they had shut off all the gas stations. So, you couldn’t stop to get gas or anything.

 

[Interviewer]: Just one thing after another.

 

[Robert Crane]: Oh, yeah. And they were also shutting the phone service off, in concentric circles, so you couldn’t make phone calls. So, we ended up, I want to say we ended up almost to Pittsburgh before we were able to turn.  Then I was able to turn to drop these guys off, and then, make the trek home. I think I’d like to say I got home to my mom and dad around seven, eight o’clock, maybe?  Nothing too bad, but it was bad enough.

 

[Interviewer]: No, that’s bad. I mean, it’s already been an exhausting day and to have to go out of the way and then make your way back. [01:00:28] What was your parents’ reactions learning about these events when you came home?

 

[Robert Crane]: Well, that’s interesting, I had had a conversation with my mom and dad probably Sunday afternoon because I typically would call them on a Sunday after they got back from church. And their only question was, “Are you going to come home?” And I said, “No, I’m going to stay here. Campus is open, there’s going to be class, I’ll stay here.” And so, that was the last conversation we had until I got home on Monday night. And probably, this is probably a good place to interject. My older brother was a Navy corpsman at this time and he was sleeping on the Cambodian border when we went into Cambodia.

 

[Interviewer]: Wow.

 

[Robert Crane]: And my future brother-in-law was one of the first platoon leaders in the helicopters going into Cambodia. So, there is that connection. So, it was interesting what they had to say and what their perspectives were. Anyhow, my mom was very happy to see me.

 

I was happy to be home.

 

[Interviewer]: Right. I assume by the time you had gotten home they had probably already learned of the news. And I can’t imagine you walking through the door, what a relief that would’ve been.

 

[Robert Crane]: Well, I think so. It was very tough, I guess. But then, my mom was really quite happy, relieved. Because, like I said, you couldn’t make phone calls. You couldn’t stop and say “I’m on my way” or anything. And then once you got outside of that circle there was no reason to stop. You might as well just keep going.

 

[Interviewer]: Right. So, most radio silence until you walk through that door.

 

[Robert Crane]: Right. Well, yeah- so.

 

[Interviewer]: [01:03:46] Do you recall completing coursework at home for the rest of that semester or quarter? Excuse me.

 

[Robert Crane]: I do. I do, the School of Business sent us, each class sent us stuff that we had to do. And, of course, the ROTC did the same thing. So, I remember having to go, you had to get yourself onto a schedule to get this stuff done. And you had, I don’t know, thirty, forty days maybe? Sixty? I can’t remember, to get it all done. But that was different. Now today, if you stop to think about it, today, we’ve just gone through the pandemic with virtual learning and all that. That was a precursor to virtual learning.

 

[Interviewer]: It truly was. I mean, you think about it now and we, obviously, have the technology. But to have to do coursework, it’s interesting to hear some people do coursework via snail-mail, some had the opportunity to meet their professors in their homes. So, it’s really interesting to kind of compare and contrast that remote schooling.

 

[Robert Crane]: Yeah, mine was all by snail-mail. They mailed us stuff, and I mailed it back.

 

[Interviewer]: Kept the post office busy.

 

[Robert Crane]: That’s right. And that’s when they were (unintelligible [01:05:38])

 

[Interviewer]: Do you, was there any moment that you thought about not going back to Kent State University, or did you always have it in your mind you were going to be back?

 

[Robert Crane]: Yep.  There wasn’t any reason for me not to go back. That’s where all my friends were, that’s where I was doing everything I liked to do and all that. So, there was no doubt that I wasn’t going back.

 

[Interviewer]: Okay. You had recently shared with me that the Dean of Judicial Council, John Huffman wrote you a letter in May of 1971 thanking you for your work as a response to the shootings. [01:06:38] Can you talk about what work he was referring to?

 

[Robert Crane]: Yeah. After all the shootings- well, let me add just a little bit more. I also worked for the athletic department. We touched upon this, athletic student there at the times, but I actually worked for them. And, so, my job was, basically, I took care of all the ticket counters.

 

Make sure that they were staffed, and I would go around and collect the money and all that. And so, I was involved, I guess, with the university more than just through the ROTC. So, in this particular case, after the shootings, we’re in the fall of the next year, I get approached and asked if I’d be interested in being part of a special group of kids that basically would go to these sit-ins, these protests, these gatherings, and just be the ears of the administration. So, this wasn’t an ROTC thing, this was not a group of infiltrators or anything like that. We were a group of kids that, I would go when they would have an all-night sit in. Well, I’d go all night and I’d sit in with them, just to listen and to report. Because the university certainly did not want to get caught again with that kind of situation. And it was a good thing to know what’s being said. So, and again, back then, if you could imagine what people who sit-in look like, right?

 

[Interviewer]: Um-hm.

 

[Robert Crane]: They generally had long hair and some of them may have beards and they have hippie-style clothes on and fatigued jackets and all that. And then, you have somebody like I was at that point in time, I was in ROTC. I got short hair. I don’t wear, I might have a pair of bell bottoms but that’s probably as liberal of a look that you’re going to see at that time. So, it wasn’t like I was hiding in their midst, okay? And so, I could sit down, and I could talk with them. We would spend a lot of time talking and that. And so, that’s what he’s referring to, that’s what we did. It was a group of, maybe, eight of us that did that.

 

And we were able to, I did that all my junior and maybe sen- and we weren’t paid anything. It was all volunteering stuff. I think the only thing we might have gotten out of it was a dinner, if we were going out at night, they’d made sure we were fed. It was not a paid position.

 

[Interviewer]: [01:11:00] Is there anything you’d like to share about how these experiences have affected your life over the years?

 

[Robert Crane]: You know, you can’t get away from it. Even now, you can’t get away from it. Today, I mean, you look at some of the events that have occurred today, these people just, you can’t get away from these events. They live with you forever. I mean, my first assignment in the Army, they all ask where you went to school, and where did that lead you? You go down that trail that I got with the brother that I was talking to you about earlier. Every time I’d seen him, he’d always brings it up. Even today, now living in Dayton, I ended up working for the air force to end my career. Even today, I mean, they ask, “Were you there?” “Yeah.” So, you’re always going down that rabbit hole. And my sympathy is for the people that had gone through much more horrible things than I have, and how they have to learn to cope with their situations.

 

So, every time- I coach soccer. I’ve coached at the high school level, coached at various different levels, and my son coached collegiate level. Even in soccer, I’ll end up talking with some of the coaches and they’ll, you know, it comes up. It’s just something that lives with you every day. It’s nothing that I would say it’s, “Oh, my gosh!” or anything, it’s just part of who you become.

 

[Interviewer]: Absolutely. That totally makes sense. [01:14:14] Is there anything else you’d like to talk about that we haven’t covered?

 

[Robert Crane]: Well, yeah, I would like to, my wife is a Kent Sate graduate also and she worked at the Chestnut [Burr].

 

[Interviewer]: Oh, for the yearbook?

 

[Robert Crane]: Yes, for the yearbook.

 

[Interviewer]: Okay.

 

[Robert Crane]: So, get her to talk sometime.

 

[Interviewer]: Absolutely. We’d love that.

 

[Robert Crane]: Yep. And my brother-in-law, he, and I talked a little bit about him, and he got his master’s degree from Kent.  Yep. So, that’s kind of interesting.

 

[Interviewer]: Lots of connections to Kent State.

 

[Robert Crane]: Oh, yeah. I was talking to this one kid Saturday, I said, “Where are you going to school?” He said, “I’m going to go to Ohio University.” And I said, “Ah! You shouldn’t have told me that.” I was like, Why didn’t you consider Kent? Yeah. So, you think that’s enough?

 

[Interviewer]: Yeah, absolutely. And again, if anything you can think of down the road that kind of pops up, we’d be happy to communicate that and set up something else. And, yeah, we would love to talk to your wife. So, I’ll send you that information. But if there’s nothing else today, I just want to thank you again so much for participating in the project. It’s been a pleasure speaking with you today.

 

[Robert Crane]: Same with you. It was a pleasure talking to you, also.

 

[End of Interview]

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