Every person has a niche. A place to feel at home, a place to realize talent and achieve potential. University chemistry Professor LeRoy H. Klemm’s place in this world was his lab.
Friends and family of the late professor will gather together to celebrate Klemm’s life at a memorial service in the Knight Library Browsing Room Saturday at 2 p.m. Klemm died on Jan. 21 of cancer. He was 83.
Klemm dedicated his life and his love to two things — his family and his work, said chemistry Professor Mike Haley.
“He had a true love for chemistry,” Haley said. “He loved being in the lab, working on a project. After his retirement and the death of his wife, he was even willing to spend his own money to fund his research.”
Within the broader field of chemistry, Klemm’s specialty was carbocyclic and heterocyclic compounds. These compounds form the basis of most modern pharmaceuticals. According to Haley, Klemm was fascinated with finding new methods and steps in the production of the compounds. Klemm’s work on heterocyclic compounds was especially well-known in the pharmaceutical field.
Klemm’s passion for his work was infectious, and he managed to pass his enthusiasm on to his students and colleagues throughout his 50-year career as a professor for the University.
“I always said that when I got to his age I wanted to have as much enthusiasm and energy for my work as he did for his,” Haley said.
Klemm was born July 31, 1919 in Maple Park, Ill., to Henry and Anna Reines Klemm. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Illinois in 1941. In 1943, he earned his master’s degree; then in 1945 he earned his doctorate, both from the University of Michigan.
After his marriage in 1945 to Christine Jones, Klemm moved to Ohio and taught chemistry as a postdoctoral student at Ohio State University. He also taught at both Harvard and Indiana before moving to Eugene and joining the University faculty in 1952.
Klemm helped to establish the undergraduate research program in organic chemistry. He served as the assistant dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 1960 to 1962 and again from 1968 to 1969, and as the associate dean of the grad school from 1960 to 1962.
During his career at the University, Klemm remained as committed to his own work as he did to the work of his students. He published 175 scholarly papers while he was active on the University faculty and 35 more after his official retirement in 1990.
“He had a passion for his science that is not often seen these days,” Haley said. “Even after his retirement, he was a fixture at the annual regional American Chemical Society meetings.”
Professor LeRoy Klemm is survived by a daughter, Rebecca Klemm of Washington D.C.; a son, Richard Klemm of Naperville, Ill.; and two grandchildren. A daughter, Ann Klemm, died in 2002.
Memorial contributions may be made to the LeRoy H. Klemm Seminar and Undergraduate Research Fund in Chemistry, to the Nature Conservancy, to the Sierra Club, to the Obsidians or to Oregon Health and Science University.