Mailbag: Memories, sadness stirred by story about 1976 shootings

Thank you so much for the story about the anniversary of the shootings at Cal State Fullerton that appeared in the recent Weekend section.

Paul Herzberg and I were close friends during and after high school in the 1960s, and Seth Fessenden was one of my first professors at CSUF. In fact, my wife and I met in one of his classes. The killings were so unbelievable at the time and remain such a shocking memory.

I didn’t know about the upcoming memorial until reading the article.

Now we’ll have a chance to give the victims a belated farewell.

Bob Niccum
Buena Park

Editor’s note: A candlelight vigil honoring the seven people slain in the July 12, 1976, shootings at Cal State Fullerton is being held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at the school’s Memorial Grove. The campus is at 800 N. State College Blvd.

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I read with great interest and sadness the article on the Cal State Fullerton massacre.

My very good friend Steve Becker was killed that day.

I met Steve through my husband, who had been his friend all through school in Fullerton. Steve was one of the kindest people I had ever met. He came to our apartment unexpectedly early one morning, so I gave him some poetry I had just written to read while I finished dressing. When I returned to the living room, he was wiping away tears. Sensitive but also with a great sense of humor. Steve would do anything for a friend.

On that horrible morning in July, Steve went to work, forgetting he had a dental appointment. He met the killer on the stairwell and was suspicious that he was carrying a rifle. Steve tried talking him into giving him the gun and then tried to take it from him. The killer then pointed it at him and started to shoot. Steve ran for the exit, picking up a coffee mug from a desk and throwing it at him. The killer kept shooting.

I read the article through tears. I cried for Steve and the loss of a wonderful friend and a life cut tragically too short. I cried for the little innocents in Sandy Hook. I cried for all the senseless deaths from gun violence in this country.

Catherine Welch
Laguna Beach