Hemenway comments on death of former KU chancellor

Kansas University Chancellor Robert Hemenway released the following statement Monday about the death Sunday of W. Clarke Wescoe. Wescoe, 83, was KU’s 10th chancellor, from 1960-69.

“On behalf of the entire university community, I extend our deepest sympathies and condolences to the children of Chancellor Wescoe on their tremendous loss. Chancellor Wescoe’s mark on this institution will continue to benefit students and scholars for generations to come.

Memorial announcement

  • The university will conduct a memorial service for Wescoe at 4 p.m. March 10 in the Central Court of the Spencer Museum of Art at KU. Private burial services will take place at KU’s Pioneer Cemetery.

“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 was born May 3, 1920, in Allentown, Pa.

He earned his bachelor’s degree at Muhlenberg College in Allentown in 1941 and his medical degree in 1944 at Cornell University in New York. 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 medical center in Kansas City, Kan.

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.

Two structures on KU’s campuses are named in Wescoe’s honor.

They are the 30-year-old Wescoe Hall, which serves as KU’s humanities building in Lawrence, and Wescoe Pavilion at the medical center in Kansas City, Kan. His alma mater, Muhlenberg College, renamed its Evening College as the Wescoe School of Professional Studies.