ORAL HISTORY OF JOHN LUND KRIKEN Interviewed by Suzanne ...

Riess: Was that an important liberating time?
Kriken: When I was there I was comparatively young; I think there was only one other
student who was as young as I was. There were many returning Korean War
veterans who were primarily in their mid- to late-twenties. They had a
maturity and knowledge and sense of purpose, and were articulate about what
they were doing. Meeting these fellow students had a huge impact on my own
sense of purpose.
Riess: These were Korean War veterans who were in architecture school?
Kriken: They had completed their military service in 1956. The war ended in ’53. But
some people must have had additional service time to perform. But anyway,
there they were. One fellow I remember was [Richard] Whittaker, who later
became a partner with Charles Moore. Another one was Jim Terry, who
became a good friend, from New York. They were, of course, from all over, and
that was also interesting. I shouldn’t start trying to name them because there
are so many.
Riess: Do you think there was a big rush to get into architecture or those fields after
that war? Was there something in the air? Or maybe it was just a normal
population of undergraduates. I don’t know.
Kriken: I don’t know either if there was suddenly a jump in the school age population,
or the class population with the Korean War veterans, but it was just very
11