On the morning of July 10, 1970, the front page of the Wisconsin State Journal included headlines relating to Congress rejecting a ban on sending troops to Cambodia, the US government moving to desegregate school districts in Mississippi, Florida, and other Southern states, and that at 61 deaths, the American death toll in Vietnam was the lowest in more than three and a half years.
Tucked away in the paper, under the obituaries, was a short article without a byline: "Prof. Robinson, 44, Critically Burned in Heater's Blast." Richard H. Robinson, who had started the country's first dedicated doctorate degree in Buddhist studies, initially survived the explosion that blinded him and burned most of his body. Doctors didn't expect him to live through the night; yet he survived another four weeks at the University Hospital before dying from complications related to the accident.
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