A former Kent State University student is being remembered for his part in a pivotal moment in American history.
John Cleary died on Oct. 25 at his home in Pittsburgh, surrounded by his family. He was 74.
Cleary was one of 13 people shot on the Kent State campus when members of the National Guard opened fire on unarmed anti-war protesters on May 4, 1970. Four students, Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer and William Schroeder, were killed in the shooting. Cleary and eight others were wounded.
Cleary stood as a reminder of how to persevere through tragedy and find peace, according to Roseann “Chic” Canfora, a May 4 survivor whose brother, Alan (who died in 2020), was among the nine wounded.
“He managed his trauma and his pain far more privately than many of us who turned our anger and confusion into activism and a pursuit of truth and justice for why the Ohio National Guard opened fire on us,” Canfora said of Cleary. “When John later in life joined us in that pursuit, his voice became by far one of the most powerful and stood in sharp contrast with his gentle and peaceful nature.”
As a freshman architecture student, Cleary carried a camera to document his journey through college. On the day of May 4, he was attempting to get a photo of the National Guard heading down a hill away from protestors before they turned around and fired in unison toward him.
A bullet tore into Cleary’s lung and knocked him unconscious. In a 2010 interview that’s part of Kent State’s May 4 Oral History Collection, Cleary said he was hospitalized for around 10 days.
“The best way I can describe it is like getting hit in the chest with a sledgehammer,” Cleary said.
Howard Ruffner captured a photo of the moments after the shooting as students tended to Cleary on the ground. That black and white photo appeared on the cover of "Life Magazine" two weeks later.
“It was shocking,” Ruffner said. “It’s the kind of stuff you see in the movies, but it was real. It was quite scary, actually.”
In 2019, Ruffner and Cleary met in person to discuss how the photo impacted their lives and to get to know each other. Ruffner said they later followed each other on Facebook and realized they had quite a bit in common.
“Here was the person who was on the cover of 'Life Magazine' with the photographer who took the picture,” Ruffner said. “It was good to talk to him and find out who he was.”
After his recovery, Cleary returned to campus the following semester and was later able to graduate on time, but it was some time before he began regularly attending May 4 commemorations. In the 2010 oral history interview, Cleary said it was because he prioritized starting his career and his family.
“I had always said that I wasn't going to let this stop me from my goals in life,” Cleary said.
Canfora said his reluctancy to speak about the tragedy added to his voice’s power and importance.
“In speaking so rarely, but so meaningfully late in life, he became one of the most thoughtful and persuasive in recent years,” she said.
As he got older, Cleary said he made more of an effort to attend the commemorations. He developed a relationship with fellow shooting survivor Thomas Grace and became more involved in the commemoration and its history by speaking to students, participating in interviews and engaging in oral history projects with Kent State.
Grace described Cleary as private and quiet. He added Cleary “radiated goodness” in a very quiet way.
“He was a profoundly decent and privately spiritual person,” he said. “He was a reflective thinker who spoke only when he thought he could improve on the silence.”
At 2025’s May 4 commemoration, Cleary rang the victory bell, a tradition that signifies the moment the shooting occurred, honoring the dead and wounded.
“It was a real honor,” Cleary said in an interview with The Kent Stater. “I had not rang the bell before, so I was a little bit nervous, but it worked out well.”
In reflecting on Cleary’s life, Kent State President Todd Diacon called him a “testament to the power of reconciliation."
“He had every reason and right to lead with anger and bitterness for the rest of his life, yet the John we came to know was kind, sensitive and an inspiration,” Diacon said in a statement following Cleary's death. “We are all better for knowing him and will be guided by his strength within the legacy of May 4, 1970.”
