Service Honors Memory of JFK

Death can give meaning to life by showing what one is willing to die for, the Reverend Dr. Langdon Gilkey '40 explained at a Memorial Service yesterday in honor of the late President John F. Kennedy '40. The service was held in Memorial Church as part of the 25th reunion of the Class of 1940.

Gilkey began by comparing the pacifism of his generation with the pacifism of the generation in college now. Then as now, he said, any breach of the peace was an attack on basic values, and war seemed inconceivable. But through the experience of World War II, Gilkey continued, that generation learned that power had to be used, but used with restraint. The current generation he said, is still hesitant to use power at all.

Kennedy Added Meaning

Paying tribute to Kennedy, Gilkey said that he was one who added meaning to life through death. Kennedy was "a brilliant example" of a man willing to use power, while remaining acutely conscious of the need for restraint, Gilkey stated.

At one point in the service, the names of all the members of the Class of 1940 who had died were read.

Besides the Reverend Gilkey, participants in the service included the Reverend Bayard S. Clark '40 of the Urban Training Center in Chicago, Illinois, the Reverend Avery Dulles '40 from Woodstock, Maryland, and the Reverend John F. Hayward '40, professor of Theology at Meadville Theological School in Chicago.