Courtesy Photo Harry and Marilyn Walchuk are seen in this undated photo with their children, from oldest to youngest, John, Peter, Christopher and Jennifer, at the family lake home in Leonard, Minn.

AUSTIN, Texas — Monday, Aug. 1, 1966 was a sunny and hot day on the University of Texas campus.

Looming over the campus’ main plaza was a 307-foot tower constructed in the mid-1930s, with 27 floors and an observation deck on top.

Across town from the Austin campus were the murdered bodies of the wife and mother of Charles Whitman, a student and former U. S. Marine. Next to their bloodied bodies, from the night before, were carefully assembled notes from Whitman expressing anger and hostility.

By early morning, Whitman was preparing for what would be America’s first modern public mass shooting. His destination was the tower. In his vehicle was a footlocker filled with weapons and ammunition, food, and water. Whitman was a former sharpshooter.

The time was nearing 11:30 a.m.

Near the main plaza, below the tower, were hundreds of students, faculty members, university employees, and locals preparing for lunch or to enjoy the summer day.

With that midday crowd was Harry Walchuk, an Alpena Community College political science professor working on his doctorate degree at the university. At age 38, he was married to Marilyn and they had six children.

Dressed in overalls, Whitman arrived at the tower and unloaded his car of the footlocker and angled it onto a two-wheeled cart. He entered the tower and took the elevator up to the 27th floor, just below the observation deck. He was greeted by a receptionist who questioned his presence.

As she turned her back on him to make a telephone call, Whitman bludgeoned her to death and dragged her body across the floor and placed her body behind a sofa.

It was 11:40 a.m. and the temperature was pressing 100 degrees.

He took the cart and footlocker to the observation deck and positioned the cart and some furnishings in front of the only entry and exit door.

Voices could be heard in the stairwell heading to the observation deck. He fired one of his rifles, instantly killing two male youth and injuring two others.

The door closed to the observation deck. Whitman positioned himself in the tower’s commanding view. He was protected by large concrete railings but had significant sightlines through the deck’s water drainage system.

At 11:48 a.m., Whitman honed in his scoped rifle on a couple walking across the plaza. Shots rang out. A pregnant student tumbled to the ground. She survived, but lost her unborn child. Her friend bent over her to see what happened. He was fatally shot.

It took a period of time for those on the plaza and the police to understand the carnage was being undertaken from the tower.

At that time, Austin’s police were mostly armed with revolvers. There was no such thing as a SWAT team nor armored vehicles.

As victims fell on the plaza and nearby streets, varied people attempted rescues. In many instances, the rescuers themselves were fatally shot or wounded. Whitman’s shots travelled well over a quarter-mile. Some flew into buildings’ windows, where more were wounded.

Walchuk, the ACC professor, was on Guadalupe Street, less than a block from the tower. He was preparing to enter a small newsstand next to a Rexall drug store. He was targeted and fatally shot.

Records reveal he was transported to a nearby hospital, where he died within a short period.

Marilyn became a widow and the six children fatherless.

Meanwhile, an airplane with an Austin police sharpshooter headed to the tower. Their flight was cut short as Whitman fired upon the plane, but they were able to confirm there was a sole shooter. Media stories state dozens of Austin residents acquired their hunting rifles and returned fire on the tower.

The plaza was a death trap, by all accounts.

Guided by a university maintenance engineer, two Austin police officers traveled through the plaza tunnels to the tower’s base and onto the elevator toward the observation deck. En route, an armed civilian joined them.

They pushed aside Whitman’s door blockade. Whitman fired at the civilian when he saw him on the deck. The police officers fired fatal pistol and rifle rounds into Whitman.

The 96 minutes of terror ended.

Sixteen were killed and 31 injured. Those figures were not reflective of the baby boy fetus killed, nor the victim who experienced chronic kidney injuries from gunshot wounds and died years later.

An autopsy of Whitman was conducted as then-Gov. John Connally launched the Texas Study Commission. Theories surfaced that Whitman was addicted to drugs, experienced a difficult childhood and had a hard time in the military and in his current life. He had a small tumor which may have triggered the brain’s violent part.

Gary M. Lavergne is an Austin resident and author of “A Sniper in the Tower: Charles Whitman Murders,” published in 1997.

Lavergne said that, over a multi-day period, prior to and the day of the mass shooting, Whitman was very methodical in preparation. In simple terms, Whitman was a killer with goals.

A memorial of the shooting was dedicated on the campus plaza across from the tower on Aug. 1, 2016.

America’s next public mass shooting didn’t occur until July 18, 1984 at a San Ysidro, Calif. McDonald’s restaurant.

Twenty-one were killed and 19 injured.

Brasie is a former Alpena resident and a retired health care CEO. He writes historic feature stories and resides in suburban Detroit.

Profile of Harry Walchuk and family

∫ He was an Alpena Community College political science professor

∫ Married his wife, Marilyn, in 1951

∫ The couple had six children: John, Paul, Peter, Christopher, Thomas, and Jennifer

∫ He was born in 1928 in Minnesota

∫ At the University of Texas, he was working on his doctorate when fatally shot

∫ Marilyn pursued a graduate degree in special education at the University of Texas with a focus on serving people with mental illness

∫ He was a U.S. Navy veteran

∫ Internment is at Fort Snelling National Cemetery (Minneapolis/St. Paul)

∫ Five of the children attended the University of Texas’ 50th anniversary and dedication of the mass shooting memorial on campus on Aug. 1, 2016