Mark F. Seeman

Mark F. Seeman, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Kent State University. His involvement in the May 4, 1970, shootings began on that day when two students from Kent State came to stay at his apartment when he was a student at Allegheny College in western Pennsylvania after the closing of the campus. They were in shock and had no way to get home.

As a faculty member at Kent State from 1976-2012, Dr. Seeman was an archaeologist and preservationist. As a preservationist, he was appointed to the Ohio Historic Preservation Advisory Board by governors George Voinovich, Bob Taft and Ted Strickland, chairing that board under Gov. Strickland. This experience made Dr. Seeman know that the site of the Kent State shootings must be preserved and federally recognized. Consequently, he has participated in a number of May 4 initiatives, especially those involving the preservation of the site and in educational projects pertaining to the site.

Specific May 4 initiatives that have occupied Dr. Seeman’s attention include the successful nomination of the site to the National Register of Historic Places (2005-2010), the audio walking tour, the design and fabrication of the May 4 Visitors Center and the National Historic Landmark nomination (2010-2017). He led the National Register of Historical Places nomination and was second-author on the National Historic Landmark nomination. He was third-author with Carole Barbato and Laura Davis on This We Know: A Chronology of the Shootings at Kent State, May 1970 (Kent State University Press, 2012). He has served on discussion panels, given presentations on the significance of the shootings and led tours of the site.