Bob Welch Oral History

Object number1994.007.0023

Date09/28/1994

ClassificationsOral Histories

Oral history interview subject Bob Welch

Oral history interviewer Wes Wise

Oral history interviewer Bob Porter

ObjectOral history

Credit LineOral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

MediumHi-8 videotape

DimensionsDuration: 118 Minutes

Collections

DescriptionVideotaped oral history interview with Bob Welch. A reporter and cameraman for Dallas NBC affiliate WBAP-TV, Welch covered the attempted shooting of Major General Edwin Walker in April 1963. On the day of the Kennedy assassination, Welch was at Dallas Love Field, the Dallas Trade Mart and Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he captured the only known sound recording of the announcement of President Kennedy's death. In 1964, Welch reported on the Jack Ruby trial in Dallas. Later, working as an NBC News photographer, he covered the Civil Rights Movement and spent six months in Vietnam. Interview conducted at Mr. Welch's home on September 28, 1994 by Wes Wise and Bob Porter. The interview is one hour and fifty-eight minutes long.

Curatorial Commentary

Bob Welch passed away on December 19, 2016. Twenty years after recording this 1994 oral history, Welch participated in a follow-up three-hour video interview with The Sixth Floor Museum. In 2015, he participated in a public program which may be viewed on the Museum's YouTube channel: Living History with Bob Welch - YouTube.

Welch's 16mm film with the only known sound recording of the announcement of President Kennedy's death at Parkland Memorial Hospital may be found in the 2005 Sixth Floor Museum exhibit video, "Covering Chaos: Reporting the JFK Assassination," beginning at the 02:25 mark: Covering Chaos: Reporting the JFK Assassination - YouTube. - Stephen Fagin, Curator