Kennedy exhibit opens Nov. 1
by Michael Kraft, reporter

     It began as an idea—an idea that was intended to educate, inspire and make a younger generation aware of a time when politics and the Presidency were more than the butt of jokes.
     This idea has now cumulated into Kennedy: The Man, The President, The 1960s.
     The exhibit, which premieres Wednesday, Nov. 1, on South Campus chronicles the presidency of John F. Kennedy and was the brain child of Prince Albert of Monaco and Farris Rookstool III, founder of the JFK Museum Foundation.
     When Rookstool was a consultant to the 6th Floor Museum in Dallas in 1994, he and the Prince had a conversation and agreed that while the 6th Floor is a great museum, it focused too much on Kennedy’s death and less on his life and accomplishments as President.
     “I see this exhibit as bookends to history,” Rookstool said during a special press preview exhibit and public announcement on South Campus last week. “People can go to Dallas and learn about his death, then come over to Fort Worth, and learn about his life.”
     The exhibit contains many rare items and photographs from the Kennedy administration.
     “This isn’t even 10 percent of our total collection and is but a taste of things to come,” Rookstool said.
     Indeed, Rookstool and Prince Albert intend to open a large-scale museum in Fort Worth dedicated solely to the Kennedy Presidency and its effect on the culture of the ’60s and its continued effect on the world today. The museum will open after a statue of Kennedy is placed in Kennedy Plaza next spring.
     “I want this museum to be about education, about raising public awareness. It is not about profit, so we are making it free, and there will not be a gift shop,” Rookstool said.
Rookstool pointed out many of the accomplishments Kennedy made in his short term: defusing the Cuban missile crisis; handling our involvement in an increasingly volatile Cold War; and signing the Satellite Communication Bill into action, which revolutionized the speed with which people can speak to each other, work together and just live together even to this day. Most importantly, Kennedy pushed America’s space program into high gear with his promise: “By the end of this decade, I will put a man on the surface of the moon.”
    The artifacts themselves are unique and truly one of a kind. Included in the exhibit are the Presidential seal that graced the lectern for his last speech in Fort Worth, the original plans for Air Force One, one of the rocking chairs he used in the White House and the only one kept by Jackie Kennedy after his death for use in her apartment, the movie seat where Oswald was apprehended, a photo of Buzz Aldrin on the moon with his autograph along with a Massachusetts state flag that Aldrin carried to the moon.
    Also included are many rare photographs, such as those of his final speech, Kennedy with Prince Albert’s father, Prince Albert, the motorcade moments before the assassination, the space program to illustrate his ideas and the fact that he never saw the program to fruition, and his brother Bobby in Los Angeles minutes before Sirhan Sirhan shot him down.
    One photograph, The Loneliest Job on Earth, depicts Kennedy leaning over his desk lost in thought.
    These artifacts came from Rookstool’s and Prince Albert’s collections or were donated by benefactors such as Ralph McElvenny, grandson of the IBM founder.
    Fort Worth Mayor Pro Tem Ralph McCloud told the gathering, “Not too many exhibits invoke feelings of passion, nostalgia and feelings of reflection; this one will.”
    According to Rookstool, “56 percent of the U.S.’s current population was not alive in 1963, and we feel that a new generation needs to become aware of this magical time.”
    “Kennedy said, ‘There are no faint hearts in Fort Worth,’ and we are proving that today,” he continued.
Jim Wright, former Speaker of the House, talked about his relationship with Kennedy, speaking of Kennedy’s sense of humor and his idealistic plans for America.
    “Kennedy was the most inspiring President I knew, and he was the embodiment of America’s most noble ideals,” he said.
    He also told about Kennedy’s last trip from Fort Worth to Dallas Nov. 22, 1963.
    “Kennedy, Gov. Connally and I were sitting on the airplane during the short flight from Carswell to Love Field. Kennedy asked how two cities of such size and close proximity as Dallas and Fort Worth could have such wildly different personalities. Well, I was trying to explain it as best I could. Connally was trying to to explain it. But by that point, the plane had landed in Dallas,” he explained.
    “As we were getting into the cars to ride to his speech, Kennedy turned to me and said, ‘We’ll continue this conversation on the way to Austin.’ Suffice it so say, we never finished that conversation.”
    At that point, the audience grew quiet; even the snapping of cameras stopped for a moment.
    Dr. Leonardo de la Garza, TCC Chancellor, ended the presentation.
    “I want you all to wonder how enriched, how inspired, how different and how much better we would all be today if John F. Kennedy and his brother Bobby were not taken from us,” he concluded.
    A fund-raising luncheon for the TCC Foundation, hosted by Rookstool and Prince Albert, will be tomorrow at the Fort Worth City Club.