Alumnus injured in shootings at Kent State in ’70 dies at 58

AKRON (AP) — Robert Stamps, one of nine Kent State students wounded in the Ohio National Guard shootings that killed four other students 38 years ago, died in Tallahassee, Fla., of complications from pneumonia, his wife said.

Stamps, an observer who was sympathetic to anti-war demonstrators, was struck in the lower back on May 4, 1970 while fleeing tear gas and gunfire during a protest against the U.S. invasion of Cambodia. He rode in the same ambulance as Allison Krause and Jeffrey Miller, both of whom died from their wounds.

Stamps, 58, passed away Wednesday night, Teresa Sumrall said in an e-mail. He’s the second of the nine wounded students to die. James Russell died last year at the age of 60, said Alan Canfora, another student who was wounded.

Stamps grew up in the Cleveland suburb of South Euclid. He continued his studies at Kent State after the shootings, earning a master’s degree in sociology in 1975 and a master’s in journalism and mass communication in 1999. He worked as a counselor, author and musician and repeatedly called for the Guard shooters to be held accountable.

Stamps returned often to the Kent State campus for memorial ceremonies, Canfora said. He contracted Lyme disease at one event at Mohican State Park and had been bedridden for the last several years, he said.