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Rutgers Oral History Archives

  • College/Year: R-N '50
  • Links to Oral History Sessions: Kapner, Burt (August 19, 2013)
  • Conflict(s): World War II
  • Military Branch & Unit: Navy
  • Theater(s): Home Front
  • Navy Other: Naval corpman in psychiatric units

Description:

Burt Kapner was born in 1926 in Newark, New Jersey.  He grew up in a Jewish family in the Weequahic section of Newark. 

During World War II, Mr. Kapner served in the U.S. Navy on the home front.  He served as a naval corpsman in hospitals in California and Texas in psychiatric units, including units that were studying combat fatigue or what now is known as post-traumatic stress disorder.

After the war, Mr. Kapner went to Rutgers-Newark on the GI Bill and graduated in 1950.  While he was at Rutgers, he majored in accounting and played freshman basketball.

During his career, Mr. Kapner worked as a buyer for Macy's and Rockower Brothers.  He later worked as a business professor at Union County Community College.  He and his wife raised their family in South Plainfield, Plainfield and North Plainfield.

Targum Cover 11 22 1963a

 

"HERE IS A BULLETIN...": Memories of the Day Camelot Died

 

This month marks the 60th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas.

Images from that day and the events that followed remain etched in our collective consciousness—the open-top Presidential limo traveling down the people-lined streets of Dallas; President Lyndon Baines Johnson taking the oath of office on Air Force One beside a shaken First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy; John, Jr. saluting his father's passing casket at the funeral in DC.

Those who lived through that traumatic period can recall both their initial shock and the nuances of their reactions.

In "HERE IS A BULLETIN...": Memories of the Day Camelot Died, ROHA presents a sampling of stories related to the Kennedy tragedy, a touchstone event for multiple generations.

The Rutgers Targum (campus newspaper) cover from its November 22, 1963 issue. (Image courtesy of Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries.)

 

Voices of Veterans Banner 1

Voices of Veterans

 

Voices of Veterans is an online exhibit showcasing passages from oral history interviews of veterans who served in the Second World War and in wars in Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan. ROHA created this exhibit in commemoration of Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 1941.

CLICK HERE TO VISIT MORE ONLINE EXHIBITS 

 

 

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