I was in high school daydreaming through class and gazing out the glass when I saw the flag being lowered to half-mast.

The previous winter my best friend and I had taken a night-school speed reading class because JFK was reputed to read 3,000 words per minute, finishing The New York Times and Washington Post over breakfast. And he pushed a youth fitness program that encouraged teens to walk fifty miles over the course of the summer, so my swim team decided to swim fifty miles.

People now have a better understanding of the cultural impact of new wave cinema along with, arguably more influential, artists like Bob Dylan and The Beatles back then than they do of JFK, but he was a vital a part of the cultural new wave and it wouldn't have happened without him.