Newstrack: School shooting victim went on to have ‘long, happy life’

BACKGROUND

On the morning of Nov. 5, 1963, a little more than two weeks before President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, 15-year-old Randy Schultz brought a gun with him to school at Jefferson School in Cedar Rapids. In a locker room after a swimming class, Schultz shot August 'Augie” Holmquist in the back.

One of the bullets severed Holmquist's spinal cord, paralyzing from the legs down.

According to an article in that evening's Gazette, Schultz immediately lapsed into shock. Police chief George Matias reported to The Gazette that students had told police that Schultz and Holmquist had been involved in a fight during a water polo match.

Schultz later claimed Holmquist had been bullying him since junior high at Roosevelt.

WHAT'S HAPPENED SINCE

In 1964, Schultz was sent to a home for juvenile offenders. He later attended Benson High School in Omaha, Neb., where he was a national merit semifinalist. The Gazette was unable to find any official record of him after high school, although in 1999 lawyer Tom Riley told a Gazette reporter that Schultz went on to graduate with honors from a college in California.

Kathy Rickertsen, who has helped organize reunions for the class of 1966, said she had no record of Schultz, either. 'He was in my homeroom. I sat next to this guy. I had no clue he had a gun,” Rickertsen said this past week. 'It was a shock to all of us. He was a very quiet person.”

Holmquist, however, she said, was 'one of those guys you remember.” He played on the football team, which later won the 1965 state championship and dedicated the game ball to Holmquist.

Holmquist graduated from Jefferson in 1966 and later hosted radio shows in Cedar Rapids and Milbank, S.D.

He died at age 67 on March 12 at his home in Cocoa, Fla. A memorial service is scheduled for 2 p.m., May 16, at Living Word Lutheran Church in Milbank.

Holmquist's wife of 24 years, JoAnn, said the couple often returned to Cedar Rapids for Jefferson High School reunions. He was diagnosed with cancer in November, and she said the disease, along with all the years he spent in a wheelchair, is what contributed to his death.

JoAnn Holmquist said her husband told her about the shooting, but they never discussed it.

'It was in the past. He always looked toward tomorrow,” she said. 'For getting shot at 15 and not being expected to live past 25, he lived a very long and a very happy life and he would have told that to anybody.”

Jefferson classmate David Smith agreed. He said that even though Holmquist spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair, it didn't take away his 'ability to have fun and be a good, contributing citizen in society.”

'Augie was an inspiration,” Smith added. 'He stayed at it and did the best he could.”