Sterling Hall Bombing, Victim Remembered
May 17th, 2007
This took way too long.
There is little overt physical evidence now that UW-Madison’s Sterling Hall was the site of a horrific act of domestic terrorism.
To date, there has been nothing to mark the fact that a young post-doctoral student in physics, Robert Fassnacht, lost his life there.
That’s about to change.
This afternoon, more than 37 years after a truck bomb blasted a crater in Sterling Hall, the UW-Madison physics department will dedicate a plaque in memory of Fassnacht, who was killed in the Aug. 24, 1970, attack.
“I’m personally embarrassed that it’s taken so long,” said UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley, who knew Fassnacht well from his days here as a physics graduate student.
I first wrote about the a need for such a memorial back in 1990, while editor of The Badger Herald..
The lack of a memorial was shameful. Not as shameful as the fact that the gutless murderers from that August night in 1970 served little time, or evaded capture, but shameful nonetheless.
May 18th, 2007 at 8:38 am
I remember this event vividly.
There was also a failed attempt to blow-up the Badger Ammunition Plant with homemade bombs dropped out of a stolen aircraft.
May 20th, 2007 at 8:58 am
This tragedy has not been forgotten. My sister and I were discussing it with a friend just two weeks ago. It was a pivotal point on campus shaking students, faculty, and the community to the core. It was the beginning of the end of campus violence. We still carry this tragedy along with Kent State in our hearts. It changed us all. It is one of those events that has become part of our oral history and every time it is called to mind, we grieve again for the families and the great loss.
December 18th, 2007 at 9:37 am
[…] The slaps on the wrists that the Armstrongs and Fine received were insults not only to the murdered victim of this cowardly attackand his relatives, but to the entire peaceful antiwar movement, the UW community and the law abiding residents of this state. […]
February 1st, 2010 at 9:07 pm
Kudos from one braniac to another.
August 3rd, 2010 at 8:16 pm
Very good, I have access to it
August 23rd, 2010 at 4:44 pm
I grew up 8 blocks away from Sterling Hall,.. off old University ave. My family still lives there. This bomb woke us up out of our sleep and shattered windows in our neighborhood. I’ve always hated these guys and everything they stand for. The fact that people come up to them still and tell them this was ” all very needed ” is stunning to me. I remember looking at the gutted out building as we drove by it one night. It was very VERY creepy to see. ” Karlton McVeigh ” is how I know him.