Thomas Atkins

[Dealey Joe]

Even 40 years later, Tom Atkins vividly remembers what he calls the worst day of his career.It was Nov. 22, 1963, and Atkins, BFA '56, was the White House cinematographer. He was riding in an open convertible known as the reel car in President Kennedy's motorcade in Dallas."It seems like yesterday to me. (I kept saying) this is a dream. I'm going to wake up," Atkins says of Kennedy's assassination, adding that he gets tears in his eyes almost every time he remembers it. "This is America and things didn't happen like that here."But, tragically, it did happen. And after three very loud cracks that he initially thought were cherry bombs, Atkins jumped out of the car amid a crowd of frantic, crying people and had only a few short seconds to find something to film. His camera caught a husband and wife hovered over their children on the grassy knoll at Dealey Plaza."The closest I came to being shot was in Dallas," says the retired Navy commander, who dove back into the convertible as it drove off in the chaos that followed the assassination."We raced to where (Kennedy) was to give his speech, and people were just stunned and didn't know what had happened. They told us the president had been taken to the hospital, which was not too far away," Atkins remembers.When Atkins arrived at Parkland Hospital, he filmed the president's car parked outside the emergency room, focusing in on the yellow roses that had fallen to the seat and the Secret Service agents investigating the scene. He also recorded the arrival of the president's doctor and people crying outside when the announcement came that Kennedy had died."I flew back to Washington on the press plane and went to the White House and filmed them bringing the body back in the Navy ambulance to the North Portico at about 4 in the morning," Atkins says. He later made a film of the events called "The Last Two Days." The film was about 20 minutes long, and it was turned over to the National Archives and eventually to the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Atkins says.The film Atkins shot that fateful day is easily recognizable: He was the only motion picture photographer who shot in color aside from Abraham Zapruder, who shot the amateur movie said to be the only film of the assassination. Oliver Stone used some of both films in his movie "JFK." Atkins also is featured in Richard B. Trask's book, "Pictures of the Pain," an in-depth photographic history of the assassination."The thing that would probably have the most impact on people might be the (film of) when the president and his wife arrived on Air Force One in Dallas. When they got off the airplane, the two of them walked the line of people and greeted the crowd. They were smiling and happy. That always got me at that point when I saw that film. They had so little time left. Not knowing what was coming, those smiles were sort of prophetic, I thought."I got some nice, tight close-ups. They were used over and over again," he says.Atkins - who was on call at the White House 24 hours a day, seven days a week, while he held the job from 1963 to 1969 - recorded every accessible aspect of the personal and public lives of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. From visits by heads of state, cabinet meetings and vacations at Camp David to a tour around the world, Atkins has seen it all - and thanks to some of his film footage, so can we."I was never pushy. I think that's why I was able to get what I got; that's how I gained their trust," says Atkins, who attributes his success at the White House to his chameleon-like qualities. "I learned quickly that I had to act differently than the press," who made their living by climbing over each other to get the best shot.He made color films of each president's life, and his one-man operation evolved into a 23-member production crew over the course of his six years at the White House.Atkins' interest in photography began in his youth."My dad was in the Navy. He ran the base newspaper, (and he) sent me into the base photo lab to get me out from under his feet," Atkins says, remembering the first time he saw a picture being developed. "I went to the back room, it was dark - just yellow lights shining. A sailor had a piece of paper. He threw it into a tray and said, 'Watch this.'"Minutes later, that blank piece of paper turned into a photograph."It fascinated me," says Atkins, who began his own Navy career swabbing decks and later spent 18 years at the Navy Photographic Center in Washington, D.C., where he made training and public information films. After retiring from the Navy in 1976, he spent 20 years teaching at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale in Florida.Now living in Brevard, N.C., Atkins is involved in a local artists' cooperative and sells his current photography of nature and local scenes, of which he often makes notecards."I've sold all my 35 mm equipment and gone completely digital," says the 69-year-old Atkins. "Some people tell their stories with visuals, and some use words."Near the end of Atkins' career at the White House before he was promoted to commander, President Johnson had high praise for his service as the first motion-picture cameraman assigned to the President of the United States."Lieutenant Commander Atkins' outstanding talent and total dedication have provided the archives of his country with a priceless repository of historical footage for the enrichment of future generations," Johnson wrote in a citation accompanying the Navy Commendation Medal he presented to Atkins.Laiteisha Dobbins, MS '03, is a former graduate student writer for Ohio Today Online. Joan Slattery Wall is assistant editor of Ohio Today.