Dr. von KleinSmicTs Legend
(Begins on Page 5)
SUMMER
TROJAN
Vol. XIV
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, TUESDAY, JULY 14, 1964
NO. 6
Funeral Services Set For Chancellor
Offices to Close During Services
He Qave Us
TROY
Lamar, if
Funeral services for Chancellor Rufus Bernhard von KleinSmid will be held today at 2:30 p.m. in the Hall of the Crucifixion at Forest Lawn Memorial Park.
Dr. von KleinSmid, who was 89 on June 27, died about 6:40 p.m. Thursday of a cardio-vascular disease, according to his physician, Dr. George C. Griffith.
For more than half of its 84-year history, Dr. von KleinSmid was associated with USC, building it into one of the nation’s major independent universities.
He has been Chancellor at USC since 1946 and served as president from 1921 to 1946.
Chancellor von KleinSmid has been confined to a hospital in March and April but was believed convalescing when death came.
More than 1,200 people passed the bief of Dr. von KleinSmid on Sunday as he lay in state in the Memorial Court of Honor at Forest Lawn.
Hundreds of friends, educators, civic leaders, students and USC alumni filed past the bronze casket as ROTC midshipmen from USC stood as an honor guard.
The Chancellor, who served as a member of the Council of Regents of Forest Lawn’s Memorial Court of Honor since 1922, has been elected as Immortal of the Court of Honor.
He wil be the fifth person to be so honored. Others entombed in the shrine are sculptor Gutson Gorglum, composer Garrie Jacobs-Bond, physicist and Nobel laureate Robert A. Millikan and Polish painter Jan Styke.
In honor of the late Chancellor. President Topping has announced that all University classes will be suspended and all University offices closed during the funeral service, from 2 to 4 p.m.
Immediately following Dr. von KleinSmid’s passing, tributes from friends, educators and world leaders were reported.
One of the first came from President Topping, who said, “All at the University join thousands of alumni and friends throughout the world in sorrow over the death of Dr. von KleinSmid.
“For 43 years and in at least that many nations his name has been synonymous with that of USC.”
★A Great Friend Now Gone
He will be missed the world over, for he was truly a man for the world. But it will be the University of Southern California where Dr. Rufus Bernhard von KleinSmid's absence will be most felt.
It was at USC where he served 25 years as president, where he served 18 years as Chancellor and where he forged a major university from a fledgling college.
No man has contributed more to Troy. No man has sacrificed more. And no man
will be more remembered or revered.
A half century ago he first became associated with the university as its president and long ago the words von KleinSmid and University of Southern California became synomyous.
If Troy is great today, it is because von KleinSmid made it that way. Every corner, every knook was somehow touched, and improved by him during 50 years of service.
He never stopped working for the University, never quit. The day he turned 89 was probably the most meaningful in his life. For on his 89th birthday, USC dedicated the site for the $2.9 million structure which will house the Schools of International Relations and Public Administration and bear his name.
Although he was confined to his bed when the ceremony was held on June 27, Dr. von KleinSmid listened to the dedication over a radio.
Just 10 years after coming to USC, von KleinSmid established the School of International Relations, the first of its kind in the United States.
He was a great educator, an imposing world figure and a wonderful man. The stories are numerous about his charm and wit. None who knew him will forget his jaunty way of tipping his Homberg to every lady as he walked across campus, or the seemingly magnetic way he drew birds to his shoulder.
And who will forget his whispered answer of “My friends call me Barney” to a nervous pledges’ squeaking, “Good morning, Rufus.”
Today marks his funeral, and it is a time for grieving. But it is also a time for somber thought and thankfulness. Thankfulness that the world and the University of Southern California could know and love a man such as Chancellor von KleinSmid.
Goodbye, Barney.