Richard G. Bentley, Oral History

Recorded: May 4, 1990
Interviewed by Gina Bodra
Transcribed by Rhonda Rinehart

Note: This transcript includes geo-references to locations that are discussed in the oral history. Geographical names linked in the transcript will open in a new window or tab that takes you to that location information and map in the Mapping May 4 project. To request a transcript without geo-reference links included, please contact Kent State University Special Collections & Archives.

[Interviewer]: My name is Gina Bodra, and I welcome you here today on May 3, 1990. And what do you remember?

[Richard G. Bentley]: Well, perhaps a few more things that I didn't think about on the Monday of May 4, 1970. And I did have a chance this morning to pick up my date book and to see where I was on a particular date twenty years ago. On Friday, May 1st, I was in Columbus. I was one of the few faculty members -- I had an opportunity to get away from the campus after May 4, 1970, and I was in Columbus to look at the possibility of my sabbatical leave which had been given to me. Also in the spring of 1970, there were a number of other activities that I was concentrating on. One of those is that I was just promoted to a full professor, and I thought it was kind of odd that I would be entering a university where I would outrank all my professors at Ohio State University.

The thing I remember most about that several days before on May 4, 1970, is that when I arrived on campus at Ohio State at about 10:30 in the morning after driving the two and a half hours -- the sense of something being wrong was the teargas is coming through the window of the car. And I had remembered that many universities in these years preceding May 4, 1970 had problems in the spring with students being very active. And I remember the windows were usually boarded up at Ohio State.

And that the teargas -- I remember I was fairly close to the center of the campus, which was kind of unusual, but I was going to the School of Journalism and I decided that I would see if I could find a place to park where I could open the car door and get out. Then I noticed the National Guard traipsing across the campus at Ohio State, and I said to myself, Well, I'm going to be glad when I get through with my interview and I can go up through this quiet little backwater called Kent State University in Kent, Ohio where it was nice and calm. This didn't seem to me to be out of the ordinary because of the fact, as I mentioned, that a number of universities -- and I was aware of them, being in contact, and at this time was also on the Faculty Senate -- I was aware of other institutions and problems. And then coming back, one thing struck me -- that the bridges all had National Guard posted at the underpasses to the bridges. Then I had remembered, yes, that in the news there had been problems with a trucker's strike on that particular day.

And then coming to the city -- I also recalled that being on the Faculty Senate, I was a marshall for about three days. And I remembered my friend Bill Fisher, who is now teaching at another university who was in the School of Journalism -- I don't know the exact date, but I assume it to be either the Friday or the Thursday before I went down to Ohio State -- I think it must have been either Thursday or Friday. But we were patrolling in the evening, and our role as a marshall was just to -- not to be too obtrusive, but at least to be there to let the students know at least there was someone that was sympathetic to the particular times. We got down to the foot of Taylor Hall and a new building. I was a part of that because my friend and I did the drawings for Taylor Hall, the first floor -- the graphics. And we got to -- this was right after sunset -- and we noticed there was a lot of activity around the old barracks that was now between Taylor Hall and the new art building. It was kind of sitting by itself, and as I recall, there were two barracks there, really. One that English department -- I remember it being quite funny in the spring because the aerospace students would light up the F-84 jet that was there, and it would shake the temporary building -- the old WWII barracks. But on that particular evening preceding May 4, I remember quite distinctly that as we got down we saw quite a bit of activity there, and we noticed, then, that it looked like there was going to be some trouble. So we stayed for a time, and very shortly we noticed that there were some flares being lit, and also shortly after that the fire department came then. We were there for about 45 minutes, and we noticed that there was kind of a tug-of-war going on with the hose. And so we got on one end, and there were several students helping us. But as time went on -- this was approximately 15 or 20 minutes -- we noticed that there weren't any firemen there, and there were some knives up ahead of us. They were cutting the firehose. And by then, there was a flare that started up in one corner of the barracks. All of the sudden we realized -- taking stock of what our role was and where we were -- if the firemen were not there, and it looks like some steel flashing up in front of us -- that we hadn't ... And we could see fire in the barracks, we knew we had no business being around there. So we gave it up, and I guess the firehose was cut, and the building, I guess, did burn to the ground. Then, of course, when I did get back on Friday -- I came back on the same day when I was down at Ohio State -- and as I mentioned, I did notice a lot of activity on almost every overpass on [Interstate] 71 coming up to Kent.

I lived two doors down from a man by the name of Roy Satrum; in fact I was talking with him just the other day. I've never really talked to Roy. I would see him almost on a daily basis because I was the first resident on the street where he lives thirty-five years ago -- there's nobody that's that old. Well, anyway, he mentioned to me something I thought was kind of interesting this year, and that's the reason I'm here. He says, "Glenn Frank's not talking this year." Well, I don't know whether Glenn Frank is talking or not, but I do know that they probably wouldn't have too much to say to each other because the polarization was reflected in those two personalities more than anything else.

Well, on the morning of May 4, I was teaching an advanced photography course, and I had a chance to -- because it was a beautiful day, really nice -- so I -- right there in Taylor Hall; a brand new facility -- but I decided to take them out onto the lawn, which slopes down in the back of the building. And I noticed that all morning long there was activity with the National Guard. And probably the flowers placed in that that the Guard contrary to -- maybe they were other places -- but about, I imagine, about thirty-five to fifty troops paralleled the walk that goes from Taylor Hall to where they knew our building is. It goes down to where the old Student Union used to be. I don't know what the building is used for now. Since I retired in '81, I don't come up very often except for coffee -- so that's about the only route that I remember distinctly [laughs]. There's so many things that have changed.

My class, as I recall, was from 10 to 12 o'clock, and each student had at least one camera, so there were approximately -- a class of twenty-four-- with at least twenty-four cameras, and all of them loaded. During the last few days, I tried to get access to my grade sheet because I don't -- of course, twenty years later, I don't have it -- but I think that -- I know John Filo was in my class, but whether he was in that class... And I think I was teaching an advanced photography class at that time. What brings all this up is, I'm looking at the Newsweek issue of May 7, and of the runaway from Florida bending over the body, and this was a very rude awakening to me to see that this particular photograph -- which is the one I identify with John Filo -- was also taken by my colleague, Doug Moore, who I think is passed away several years now. He was the University photographer. But on the bottom of this, it says 'Doug Moore, A.P.' And this is -- so what I'm going to look up is to see what the perspective -- I'm interested in this point, twenty years later, in some of the psychological and the communication theory of this. I want to see what the perspective was and what the timing -- so I could probably tell from my background what the timing -- whether this was before John Filo's Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of the same content. But anyway, I do know that after that class and after the tragedy, that about half my class had taken pictures, and they were used in the Wills Gym, which used it, the FBI to look at. I think that out of that class, probably at least half of those photographs were taken that morning, because they were right there.

I remember that I thought that things were getting heated up, and that I was going to let -- I decided beforehand that I'd let my class go about ten minutes early.

[Interviewer]: Which would have been what time?

[Richard G. Bentley]: Which would have been, as I remember, we may have been on a semester system then, but the time schedule was ten minutes to twelve, I think was when the break was taken. And so I may have let them go five to ten minutes early; so they were probably free to move around about a quarter to twelve. At about five minutes to twelve, I had convinced myself it was going to be a long day, and I had other responsibilities in the afternoon, so I decided to take a quick lunch break. So I came down to the Student Union, it was this building that they -- well, it was the building at the foot of the hill at that time in 1970 -- to get a sandwich and come back up. And when I came back up, it was about 12:20, and I went directly to my office -- I had two offices, one in the technical part in the graphics lab and then I had another one, the first office to the left of the doors as you come into the doorways that are closest to Prentice, I guess, or whatever that is -- the back of the building.

[Interviewer]: In Taylor Hall.

[Richard G. Bentley]: In Taylor Hall, yes. I received a telephone call, I think probably within the next hour, to take my children out of the school. This was twenty years ago, my daughter would have been close to being a senior. She's now about thirty-seven. And the other three children were in the lower grades -- because at that time, the University School was on University property, and was twelve grades. I also remember the choppers going over, and the whole thing as just being so out of -- you know, you'd expect it in Vietnam -- because by that time we had a lot of exposure through magazines and television to a setting that was appropriate for loud, noisy choppers -- and troops running all over the place, with smoke and everything else, and teargas. And so the administration asked for the children to removed from the University School. So I took off for the school, and picked up the kids and took them to Allerton Street, where I live, which is a short distance away. And then I came back, and from there on, the rest of my memory -- it was like being the eye of a hurricane. For days and days, I was listening to people talk about what they thought it was. And I was saying to myself, Well, how come I don't know? Perhaps this is the reason. But as I said, I was one of the lucky faculty -- I didn't have to come back for a year and a half. And so I taught at Ohio State the next year, and then came back the following year. And as I was going -- this is the first time that I've looked at this book.

[Interviewer]: Your diary, right?

[Richard G. Bentley]: Well, everything in 1970. That was my high and my low year. I was elected as president of the International Graphic Arts Education Association. I had a book published; and so I was looking at this in February. I was in Columbus, and then I was in St. Louis, and I was in Detroit. I don't keep a diary. And that's why I thought this was kind of funny. And I ran across this this morning. It's got flights to about five or six different places, and a number of conventions and conferences. So when I picked up this diary, I was getting ready to throw out some things, I noticed it was for 1970, and that's when I turned to May just to see if there was anything written down there. Then I see that, yes, I was in Ohio State, and then all hell broke loose. I think that I wrote some brief comment on May 4th.

[Interviewer]: Would you like to share those?

[Richard G. Bentley]: Well, I just have, uh, let's see here...Ohio -- Well, on May 1st, Ohio State, J-School 10:45 to 12:00. And then Monday, and then just all hell [voice breaks], and to pick up the kids -- [long pause].

[Interviewer]: Thank you.

[Richard G. Bentley]: And then everything else is blank.

[End of tape]

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