Classmates to honor May 4 shooting victim

Former classmates and friends gathered today in the Goverance Chambers at Kent State University for a memorial for Robert "Robby" Stamps, one of the nine students wounded May 4, 1970 in the shootings on campus.

Stamps. 57. died of pneumonia June 11 in Tallahasssee, FL., He is the second student wounded May 4 to pass away.

John Powers, president of the May 4 Task Force, said part of the group's mission is to educate others about what happened.

"Unfortunately, those opportunities are becoming less and less with losing Robby Stamps this year and Jim Russell last year," he said.

All but one of the surviving May 4 wounded and Jim Russell's family plan to attend.

Following the memorial, attendees will walk to the site where Stamps was wounded carrying candles and memory stones.

Stamps graduated magna cum laude from KSU in 1972, later earning master's degrees in both sociology and journalism. However, he had trouble finding a job, and told the Record-Courier it was because of the notoriety he earned because of the events of May 4.

Stamps sued Cuyahoga Community College in February 1978, alleging the school gave him a verbal agreement for a counseling job, but later withdrew it because of his role in the shootings. In an April 1980 interview with the Record-Courier from his new home in San Diego, he said he loved Northeastern Ohio but had to leave because he couldn't find a job. At the time,