Dennis Hopper dies; actor, director's 'Easy Rider' became a generational marker

Dennis Hopper, 74, an actor and director whose low-budget biker movie "Easy Rider" made an unexpected fortune by exploring the late 1960s counterculture and who changed Hollywood by helping open doors to younger directors including Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, died May 29 at his home in Venice, Calif.

1970 Kent State Shootings Recalled 40 Years Later

KENT, Ohio -- The words Kent State helped define a generation.

The date May 4, 1970, is forever etched in the minds of 50 and 60 somethings who were college students at the time.

That was when Ohio National Guardsmen fired into a crowd of students demonstrating against the escalation of the Vietnam War with the April 30 invasion of Cambodia.

Four students were killed. Many others were injured.

"May 4 is one of those days like Nov. 22 and Sept. 11," said Cincinnati attorney Tim Burke, who was Xavier University's Student Body President in 1970.

Though the gunfire occurred in Northeastern Ohio, the shock waves quickly reached the Queen City.

"It was just unimaginable that these students would be gunned down that way," recalled Gus Perdikakis, a University of Cincinnati senior at the time. He's now President of Gus Perdikakis Associates in Symmes Township. "It was a very tense time -- a lot of concern among the students."

That led to an escalation of anti-war activities on both the UC and Xavier campuses.

At Xavier, Burke recalled a Midnight Mass being held in the middle of the Evanston campus.

"A number of the Jesuit faculty members came down and concelebrated that Mass," Burke said.

Xavier students also participated in a march from their campus to Clifton, where they joined UC students and the women of Edgecliff College for a silent walk Downtown and back Uptown.

"I recall the crowd being estimated at 10,000 people," Burke added.

Retired UC history professor Herb Shapiro said opposition to the Vietnam War grew geometrically.

"It was really a decisive turn in the road as far as the war was concerned and also, I think, in the seriousness of students," said Shapiro.

Within days the UC Administration Building was occupied by protesters. Many carried signs indicating they were part of the SDS -- Students for a Democratic Society.

Throngs gathered on "The Bridge" outside Tangeman University Center to listen to speakers.

Several hundred people ventured Downtown and gathered in the intersection of 5th Street and Walnut Street.

Shapiro, who had just gotten back into town, joined them and was arrested.

"We went down to the holding pen, which was in City Hall at the time," he recalled. "Then, all of those students and two faculty members, we went through the city court. It was all rather short."

Members of UC's Student Senate held lengthy open meetings about whether to continue to hold classes or cancel the remainder of the Spring term.

Student Senator John Schneider recalled very large crowds and a very tense atmosphere.

"You could cut the tension with a knife," said Schneider, now President of First Valley Corporation.

UC's Board of Trustees eventually decided to shut down the school.

"It was wise, I think, to close the university," Schneider stated. "It would have been very difficult to restart classes at that point."

However, the closing meant that many young men faced the possibility of being drafted into military service.

Perdikakis was one of them.

"I was married at the time -- just had our first child," he said. "So, the thought of having to pick up and go and be drafted was looking over my head."

Burke recalled that Xavier remained open with student leaders pushing for a strike against violence.

"We encouraged people to choose if they wanted to go to class," he said. "That was fine if they did, but many of us were going to do other things."

Forty years later, the memories of those turbulent times seem as fresh as ever.

"I think it should really be remembered as a symbol of the breakdown of responsive institutions which were supposed to take into account the feelings that people had," Shapiro stated. "That was this war had lost what degree of public standing or acceptance it may have had at one time."

Schneider took it one step further.

"I think that whole period was when people lost a lot of trust in government, had started to have a lot of doubts about its competence and I think that continues to this day," he theorized. "It probably explains a lot about the attitudes that are out there today."

However, both Schneider and Burke said the Kent State shootings changed them as people.

"I think it did tend to focus me more on being a good citizen," said Schneider. "That period of activism has focused me more on trying to be a good citizen in the city and being more involved in neighborhoods."

Burke said it was a life lesson learned early.

"I was already an activist, but probably as much as another other single social event that encouraged me to remain active in helping to do things that changes in our society," he said.

What was the message to the college students of 1970?

"It said to be careful, but not stop speaking out," Burke stated. "Four kids died in a very tragic and unnecessary way and all they were trying to do was stop a needless war."

When UC closed in 1970, many seniors weren't able to attend commencement. So, the UC Alumni Association decided to hold both a 40th Reunion and a special graduation ceremony for them on June 11, 2010.

The Class of 1970 had 4,979 members that the UC Foundation has tracked the past four decades. Most of them, 2,404 or 48 percent, live in the greater Cincinnati area. Seventy-five have been UC faculty or staff members, 63 work in medicine, 49 are employed in the legal field, 21 are architects and three are college Presidents or Chancellors. In addition, 46 are Presidents or founders of their own firms and 160 hold the title of Senior Vice-President or higher in corporations.