W. Clarke Wescoe, the 'singing chancellor,' dies at 83

W. Clarke Wescoe, the University's 10th chancellor, died Feb. 29 in Mission, Kan. He was 83. He led KU through the watershed years of 1960 to 1969, which were marked by dramatic growth and tumult on campus.

A campus memorial service was scheduled for 4 p.m. March 10 at the Spencer Museum of Art, which has benefitted from extraordinary gifts through the years from Wescoe and his late wife, Barbara Benton Wescoe, '44. A reception will follow at the Adams Alumni Center. The family plans a private burial service at Pioneer Cemetery on KU's West Campus. Survivors include his daughter, Barbara Wescoe Porto, c'67, g'83, Leawood; his sons, William Jr., d'68, Minneapolis, and David, c'76, San Diego; five grandchildren, including Stacie Porto Doyle, c'92, Cincinnati; and two great-grandchildren. The family suggests memorials to the KU Endowment Association.

Chancellor Robert Hemenway paid tribute to Wescoe's lasting impact on KU. "Chancellor Wescoe was a great leader of this university during one of the most challenging and turbulent periods in its history. As a testament to his considerable talent, he skillfully managed to enhance the quality of education at this university while also defusing explosive campus unrest and responding to the near doubling in enrollment.

"Chancellor Wescoe once said a university is created for the 'young in heart and the brave in spirit.' He may well have been speaking of his own enthusiasm for life and learning. This university is a better place thanks to the dedication and many personal and financial contributions of Clarke Wescoe. He was a true Jayhawk, and he will be missed."

Wescoe, who was born May 3, 1920, in Allentown, Pa., earned his bachelor's degree at Muhlenberg College in Allentown in 1941 and his medical degree at Cornell University in New York in 1944. After serving two years in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, Wescoe worked as a physician in New York and then joined the Cornell faculty.

He joined the KU faculty in 1951 as a professor of pharmacology at the KU Medical Center. One year later at age 32 he was named dean of the School of Medicine, the youngest medical dean in the nation. In 1960, he was named chancellor, replacing Franklin Murphy, who resigned to become chancellor of the University of California-Los Angeles. In 1969, Wescoe resigned to become vice president for medical affairs and research at Sterling Drug Inc. and, in 1985, retired as chairman of the board and chief executive officer of that company.

The Wescoes made significant financial contributions to the Kansas
University Endowment Association and the university, including 46 gifts of art for the Spencer Museum of Art, such as:

• "An Idyl," an oil landscape from the 1640s by French artist Claude Lorrain. Donated 1980.
  

• Japanese standing "Amida Buddha," a wood and lacquer figure from the 1400s. Donated 1990.
  

• "Haniwa figure of a warrior," a late 1400s Japanese terra cotta figure. Donated 1977.

In 1987, the Wescoes also donated the "Tai Chi Figure" sculpture by Zhu Ming, which is in front of Green Hall.

Two structures on KU's campuses are named in Wescoe's honor -- the 30-year-old Wescoe Hall, KU's humanities building in Lawrence, and Wescoe Pavilion at the KU Medical Center.

During Wescoe's tenure at KU, enrollment nearly doubled from 10,000 to more than 17,500, and state appropriations grew from $13 million to more than $26 million. Research grants also grew, from $4.6 million in 1960 to $15.8 million in 1969. More than $43 million in new buildings were erected while he was chancellor, and he undertook an $18.6 million campaign for private support, then the University's largest capital gift campaign. Wescoe increased faculty appointments and reorganized university governance bodies to include student membership.

Chancellor Wescoe described the latest changes in the campus skyline to former Chancellors Franklin Murphy, c'36, (left) and Deane W. Malott, c'21.

Known as a warm, personable man, Wescoe was called the "singing chancellor," as he would occasionally sing original lyrics at convocation and commencement, including the following 1966 lyrics written to "On the Street Where You Live," from the Broadway and film classic My Fair Lady":

"Here on Lilac Lane in the heart of town
You can hear this Clarke in almost any part of town

"Here excitement pours
Out of all the doors
Here on this, on the Hill where we live ...

"... People stop and stare
They don't bother me
For there's nowhere else on earth where I would rather be ..."

Chancellors of the University of Kansas
R.W. Oliver, 1865-1867
John Fraser, 1867-1874
James Marvin, 1874-1883
Joshua A. Lippincott, 1883-1889
Francis Huntington Snow, 1890-1901
Frank Strong, 1902-1920
Ernest Hiram Lindley, 1920-1939
Deane W. Malott, 1939-1951
Franklin David Murphy, 1951-1960
W. Clarke Wescoe, 1960-1969
E. Laurence Chalmers, 1969-1972
Raymond F. Nichols, 1972-1973
Archie R. Dykes, 1973-1980
Gene A. Budig, 1981-1994
Delbert M. Shankel, 1994-1995
Robert E. Hemenway, 1995-