I know he was just a state senator at this point but wasn’t his Medal Of Honor PT-109 incident fairly well known even before his Presidential campaign?
John F. Kennedy did not receive the Medal of Honor. In fact, he received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal (for non-combat heroism) and the Purple Heart.
Unless Lorraine’s father happened to to follow the glamorous 1953 wedding of JFK and Jacqueline Bouvier, it’s unlikely the name would have rung a bell before Kennedy tried to get the Democratic VP nomination in 1956.
Kennedy was never a state senator (he was a U.S. Representative for Massachusetts), and he did not win the Medal of Honor. In 1955, the time setting for the movie, he was a U.S. Senator.
I don’t think his exploits during WW2 were really all that nationally well known outside of military circles and possibly / probably among his constituency, the press reports right after the incident notwithstanding, at least not until he started campaigning for president. The movie took place in California, right? No reason people there should know who the junior senator from Massachusetts was.
There was a lot of press right after the PT-109 incident. But that was many years before 1955. Unless the father lived in Massachusetts, he probably would have forgot about one particular war hero story from 1943. There were so many of them.
Okay my mistake, for some reason I always thought he won the Medal Of Honor and was a Senator by the 1950s.
Maybe in an alternate timeline?
Perhaps the same one where he was outed by Abe Simpson as being a Nazi mole!
He received a lot of publicity after winning the Pulitzer Prize for Profiles in Courage, but that was also in 1956, after BTTF. (Note that The Straight Dope is cited as a source regarding how much of the book JFK actually wrote.)
Hill Valley’s location is somewhat ambiguous, considering at one end of town there’s the rolling hills of San Bernadino, and at the other end is Monument Valley, Utah.
People from California would know who John F. Kennedy was only if they closely followed current events and politics in 1955. Lorraine’s father didn’t fit that category so his lack of recognition of Kennedy made sense. JFK really didn’t have much of national profile until he put is name in as Adlai Stevenson’s running mate the following year.
Hill Valley is located around [del]Shonash[/del] [del]Clayton[/del] Eastwood Ravine. Just follow the railroad tracks.
Naval officers seldom get the Medal of Honor for having their boats knocked out from under them, regardless of how many of their sailors they allegedly save. What the Kennedys excelled at was self-promotion.
Even if he had been awarded the Medal of Honor there is no guarantee it would have made him famous. There were 472 WWII recipients of the Medal of Honor. Although all had some press coverage most did not achieve widespread fame.
When a captain loses his ship, the Navy has 2 options - beach him or give him a medal.
To ask a question, how likely is it that an American would say “John F Kennedy drive”, as opposed to shortening it to J.F.K Drive?
If they’re the protagonist in a film featuring time travel and they want to convey as clearly as possible to the audience, through showing not telling, that “this is the past, before all that” then the odds are pretty good it’ll be “John F Kennedy drive” every time. 
Otherwise, yeah, maybe a bit of a reach. Though I personally would consider “Kennedy,” “Kennedy Drive,” or just “JFK” more natural than “JFK Drive.” But that’s just me.
Not very likely. And using JFK would have been even more confusing for Lorraine’s dad, while being transparent to the 1985 viewers of the movie.
Ahh! But here you’re forgetting about the smaller children in the audience, many of whom may benefit from that extra boost to aid in recognition that comes with using the full name.
Point taken.
Especially if Dad is in tight with the powers that be.
Anyone else annoyed by the thread title’s missing apostrophe?
“John F. Kennedy” is not a full name.