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In Memoriam: Leonore Annenberg, 91: The philanthropist, who was instrumental in the growth of museums and nonprofit organizations around the country, dedicated her life to education and the arts, says President Sample.
Leonore “Lee” Annenberg, the former U.S. chief of protocol and president and chairman of The Annenberg Foundation, whose lifelong philanthropy entrusted billions of dollars to institutions around the country, died today of natural causes at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif. She was 91.

Together with her late husband, publisher and ambassador Walter H. Annenberg, Lee Annenberg was among the strongest supporters of USC. Since 1951, the Annenberg family and Annenberg Foundation have given $288.6 million to support programs in communication and journalism at USC.

The USC Annenberg School for Communication, along with its sister school at the University of Pennsylvania, are two of the many educational institutions across the country that bear the Annenberg name.

“A university can only become world-class with the help of world-class people,” said USC President Steven B. Sample. “Lee Annenberg is one of those people. She dedicated her entire life to improving the human condition through education and the arts.

“Thanks to Lee and her family, USC’s programs in communication are the strongest of any in the nation. Her unstinting generosity is matched by her wisdom, her foresight, her high ideals, her character and her warmth.”

Ernest J. Wilson III, dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication, said: “Mrs. Annenberg is an icon and her engagement with the power of communication to improve humanity truly has changed the world.

“Her remarkable philanthropy has enhanced the effectiveness of public education, brought artistic treasures to wider audiences and furthered the impact of communication through two great schools that bear the family’s name. Her spirit and dedication are reflected in the work of this school, its faculty and its students every day.”

A graduate of Stanford University, Lee Annenberg was appointed U.S. chief of protocol by President Ronald Reagan, bringing her signature style to the administration’s diplomatic efforts. When Walter Annenberg was appointed ambassador to the Court of St. James’s, Lee Annenberg supervised the renovation of the embassy residence in London and founded the American Friends of Covent Garden. She remained a political fixture after leaving the administration in 1982, hosting royalty and heads of state at the family’s Sunnylands estate near Rancho Mirage.

She also turned her attention to philanthropy, promoting cultural appreciation, education and the arts. With the founding of The Annenberg Foundation in 1989, the Annenbergs soon became known as one of most generous couples in the country, disbursing nearly $3 billion in grants for education, arts and the humanities through the foundation alone. In 2001, she was awarded the Andrew Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in recognition of the impact of her giving.

“Lee defined the word gracious, and her life and charities were a work of art,” said Geoffrey Cowan, USC University Professor, USC Annenberg School dean emeritus and holder of the Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership. “All who visit Winfield House, the ambassador’s residence in London, are overcome by her sense of taste and style. Yet she was also exceptionally smart and had a will of steel. I am grateful for all that she has done for USC, and we will all miss her deeply. But her golden glow will live on through her family, her friends and her exceptional legacy of good deeds.”

Lee Annenberg has been instrumental in the growth of museums and nonprofit organizations around the country. She served on the boards of some of the country’s most influential institutions of the arts and humanities, including the University of Pennsylvania, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the National Gallery of Art, the Metropolitan Opera, the Los Angeles Music Center, the Philadelphia Orchestra Association and the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace Foundation.

Among her many international honors and accolades are the Cavaliere Dell’Ordine “Al Merito Della Republica Italiana,” the Grand Officio Order of Orange-Nassau from the Netherlands, the National Medal of Arts from the National Endowment of the Arts, the Pat Nixon Ambassador of Goodwill Award, the Philadelphia Award and honorary doctorates from six colleges and universities.

03/12/09
In Memoriam: George O. Totten III, 86: The Distinguished Professor Emeritus at USC College was a World War II veteran and scholar of world peace.
George Oakley Totten III, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science at USC College, whose life’s research promoted peace in the Pacific Rim and worldwide, has died. He was 86.

Totten died of heart failure on March 2 at his daughter Vicken Totten’s home in Shaker Heights, Ohio. After suffering a stroke in early 2008, he moved from Los Angeles to the home of his eldest daughter, a doctor.

“My father was an extremely gentle person,” said the younger of his two children, Linnea Totten-Day. “He was fun-loving, open, interested in everything. He loved people and sharing his passion for world peace.”

Director of the USC Korea Project and founding director of the USC-UCLA Joint East Asian Language and Area Studies Center, Totten was a former director of the USC East Asian Studies Center and Department of Political Science chair.

Fluent in Japanese, Swedish, Chinese, French, German and other languages, he authored, edited or translated 35 books and more than 80 articles related to East Asian politics in Japan, Korea and China.

Totten joined the College in 1965, retiring in 1992 after 27 years. He remained active, earning a USC Faculty Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996. A year later, he delivered the Albert and Elaine Borchard Lecture titled “What Can be Done to Establish Peace and Stability in Northeast Asia?”

He also studied the Asian languages system for Romanization – the representation of a written or spoken word with the Latin alphabet. Despite failing health in the summer of 2008, he traveled to Shanghai to present a paper on the Romanization of Chinese.

“George was a wonderful scholar and teacher, but more importantly he was a kind and gracious colleague,” said Howard Gillman, the USC College dean, a professor of political science and Totten’s friend for nearly two decades. “I’m very sad about his passing. His loss is deeply felt by all who knew him.”

Ann Crigler, chair of political science at the College, called Totten a quintessential scholar.

“He was a scholar’s scholar,” Crigler said. “He had such passion for his research and his scholarly work. His enthusiasm was infectious.”

Stan Rosen, professor of political science and director of the East Asian Studies Center, was highly influenced by Totten, who in 1979 recruited him from the University of California, San Diego.

Rosen recalled how Totten invited Kim Dae-Jung to speak at USC about the reunification of Korea. A few years later, Kim was elected president of South Korea. Totten nominated Kim for the Nobel Peace Prize, which Kim received in 2000. Totten and his second wife, Lilia, celebrated the award with Kim in Oslo.

Rosen also remembered Totten’s enthusiasm for the subjects of his research. Totten at times wore colorful, elaborate costumes representing China, Japan or Korea during dinners at his home or during scholarly meetings at USC or elsewhere.

“He was a unique character,” Rosen said.

Unique, too, was his broad knowledge in politics surrounding China, Japan and Korea, Rosen said.

“It’s very rare to find a scholar with such expertise in so many areas,” he said.

Born July 21, 1922, in his parents’ home in Washington, D.C., Totten was the first child of an American architect of embassies and a Swedish sculptress. Totten’s interest in Japan began as a child growing up in a house with a Japanese palace room. Built around the Shining Prince Genji theme in Tokyo in 1895, the room – an extension to their new house – was presented to his mother as a wedding gift by his father.

In 1941, at age 20, after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Totten joined the Army. His language skills prompted his deployment to interrogate Japanese prisoners of war on Moratai, an Indonesian island belonging to the Netherlands.

Although the target of gunfire, he remained uninjured when his division was ordered to invade Mindanao, a Japanese-held island in the Philippines. After Japan surrendered, he and others oversaw thousands of Japanese prisoners.

Totten shared with prisoners the Song of Ariran: A Korean Communist in the Chinese Revolution, a book about the history of the Korean independence movement and the Chinese Communist movement of the 1930s.

“The POWs who read the book came to understand that the enemies they had been fighting were really as human as they, themselves,” Totten said in a 2009 New Year’s letter to friends.

After the war, in 1948, Totten married Astrid Maria Anderson and had daughters Vicken and Linnea. He earned a master’s from Columbia University and a Ph.D. from Yale University. The couple was married for 27 years before Astrid died in 1975.

Totten later married Lilia Li, a Chinese journalist with a daughter, Blanche Ma-Luk Lemes. They were married for 28 years before Lilia died in 2004.

He spent his final years re-editing and updating the Song of Ariran, written by Helen Foster Snow.

In addition to his daughters and stepdaughter, Totten is survived by six grandchildren. A memorial service is being planned in Los Angeles this summer, likely in July. E-mail Vicken.Totten@Case.edu for more information.

Donations in Totten’s name may be made to USC College, the U.S.-China People’s Friendship Association and Choate Rosemary Hall:

University of Southern California
College of Letters, Arts & Sciences
Department of Political Science, VKC 327
3518 Trousdale Parkway
Los Angeles, CA 90089
(213) 740-6998
usc.edu/posc
posc@usc.edu

President U.S.-China People’s Friendship Association
Robert Sanborn
402 East 43rd St.
Indianapolis, IN 46205
(317) 283-7735
robert@uscpfa.org
Info@USCPFA.org

Choate Rosemary Hall
Choate Rosemary Hall Development Office
333 Christian St.
Wallingford, CT 06492
www.choate.edu

03/05/09
In Memoriam: Wanda Wilk, 88: The philanthropist and USC alumna established the Polish Music Center on campus with her late husband Stefan Wilk.
USC alumna Wanda Wilk, a philanthropist, educator and patron of Polish music, died in her Los Angeles home on Feb. 18 after a long illness. She was 88.

Funeral services will be held Saturday at 9:30 a.m. at the Church of the Hills at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills, 6300 Forest Lawn Drive in Los Angeles.

A reception of Wilk’s life will be held after the burial at the Lakeside Golf Club, 4500 W. Lakeside Drive in Burbank.

Wilk’s vision for the promotion of Polish music led to the creation of the Polish Music Center at USC. The center has operated on campus under the auspices of the USC Thornton School of Music since 1985.

Wilk served as director of the Polish Music Center for the first 10 years of its operation. After retiring in 1996, she continued as the center’s honorary director, lending advice and support to the two subsequent directors and the staff.

Her contacts with many of the most prominent Polish musicians of the 20th century led to numerous concerts she organized at USC and throughout Southern California.

The many holdings of the center’s library include Polish music scores, books, periodicals, sound recordings and other materials. In recent years, the center has received several important collections of manuscripts, correspondence and memorabilia.

The Polish Music History Series, a cycle of books on Polish music published by the center, was introduced with Wilk’s volume commemorating composer Karol Szymanowski’s centenary in 1982. Since then the series has grown to include 10 volumes.Wilk served as editor in chief for the first six volumes of the series and also authored numerous articles about Polish women composers.

In 1992, together with her late husband Stefan, Wilk established Ars Musica Poloniae, a charitable foundation that coordinates a variety of projects in Polish music for Polish students in Los Angeles.

In 1996, Wilk was awarded the Polonia Restituta medal, the highest state award bestowed by Poland.

Wilk graduated from Wayne State University in 1943 with a bachelor’s degree in music. After teaching in Detroit public schools for several years, she moved to California in 1949. She enrolled in a master’s program at USC, but interrupted her studies while continuing to perform as a pianist at charity benefits. In 1952, she married Stefan Wilk and subsequently became a full-time homemaker.

In 1974, Mrs. Wilk returned to the USC School of Music to finish her master’s degree alongside her daughter Diane, who was enrolled in the School of Architecture. Mrs. Wilk graduated from USC in 1976, but the lack of reference materials on Polish music at the university planted the seed of an idea that led to the creation of the Polish Music Center.

In 1980, Mrs. Wilk received the Mayor’s Certificate of Appreciation for her participation in the Polish Cultural Exhibit at the California Museum of Science and Industry.

In 1988, Mrs. Wilk and her husband were awarded the Polonia Award from the Southern California chapter of the Polish American Congress and a gold medal from the Polish Composers’ Union, which she served as an honorary member. Mrs. Wilk’s honors at USC include the Director’s Award from the USC School of Music (1982), the Torchbearers’ Award (1992) and the President’s Commendation (2005). In 2008, she was made an honorary citizen of her hometown.

Mrs. Wilk is survived by her daughter, Diane Wilk-Burch, and her spouse, Michael Burch, their three children, and other relatives in Southern California.

Her family has requested that, in lieu of flowers, donations be sent to:

Polish Music Center
USC Thornton School of Music
840 West 34th St.
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0851

The forthcoming Spring Concert of Polish Music on March 28 at Newman Recital Hall will be dedicated to Mrs. Wilk.

02/26/09
In Memoriam: Gene Parrish, 82: He was a Classical KUSC fixture for more than two decades and talented producer or voice of National Public Radio programs.
Longtime Classical KUSC broadcaster Gene Parrish died of lung cancer Jan. 2 at his Hermosa Beach home. He was 82.

A memorial service will be held Jan. 17 at 1 p.m. in the Mark Taper Auditorium of the Central Library in downtown Los Angeles. Parking is available at 524 S. Flower St.

Parrish was a much-loved voice on the station for more than 25 years. Most recently, he was heard on Arts Alive, Spotlight and in a recorded broadcast aired Jan. 4 in which he hosted the station’s annual broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera’s western regional finals concert from Bovard Auditorium.

Parrish studied theatre at Occidental College. His radio career began in 1973 at KQED-FM in San Francisco, where he co-produced and hosted five seasons of San Francisco Opera broadcasts on National Public Radio.

Between 1979 and 1988, he traveled around the world, including six annual visits to Finland for the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival; an award-winning series on Netherlands/U.S. relations in Holland; a chamber music series in Sweden; and a San Francisco Opera project with the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in China.

From 1984 to 2008, he was a host and producer on KUSC. He also was the voice of the nationally syndicated Worldwide Jazz, of which he hosted and produced more than 800 programs.

Recent projects included a documentary commemorating the centenary of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and a tribute to Duke Ellington.

For many lovers of choral music across the country, Parrish was known for hosting and producing more than 400 broadcasts of the weekly program The First Art, which aired on many NPR stations.

Parrish is survived by Eleanor, his wife of 53 years; sons Kurt and Scott; and two grandchildren. 01/12/09
In Memoriam: Roy Saari, 63: The swimmer won a gold medal at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.
Roy Saari, a fomer world record-holding swimmer who won a gold medal at the 1964 Olympics and captured nine NCAA individual titles at USC, died Dec. 30 in Mammoth Lakes, Calif. He was 63.

Saari was part of USC’s gold medal-winning 800-meter freestyle relay team at the Tokyo Olympics, where he also took home a silver medal in the 400-meter individual medley.

He set four world records in his career, including swimming the first sub-17-minute 1,500-meter freestyle.

A graduate of El Segundo High School, Saari was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1976, the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame in 1982 and the USC Athletic Hall of Fame in 1995.

Saari is survived by his wife Sheryl, daughter Joani Lynch, son Jeff and several grandchildren.

01/08/09
In Memoriam: Robert Bau: The award-winning chemist was an inspiring instructor and gentle mentor who believed in scientific independence for his students.
Robert Bau, an esteemed faculty member of USC College’s chemistry department for nearly 40 years, died Dec. 28. He was a distinguished researcher in the field of X-ray and neutron diffraction crystallography.

“Professor Bau was an outstanding scholar, gifted teacher and wonderful colleague. His untimely passing is a great loss for our department and the College,” said Charles McKenna, professor of chemistry and department chair.

Bau was the recipient of numerous awards, including fellowships from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1982) and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (1974-76); the Alexander van Humboldt Foundation U.S. Senior Scientist Award (1985); and an NIH Research Career Development Award (1975-80). He was president of the American Crystallographic Association in 2006.

Bau, an inspiring and popular instructor, received USC Associate Awards for Excellence in Research (1979) and Excellence in Teaching (1974).

USC College alumnus Raymond Stevens, currently professor of chemistry and molecular biology at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, earned a Ph.D. in chemistry under Bau’s guidance and considers him to be one of his most important influences, scientifically and professionally.

“Bob Bau was an incredible adviser and mentor. He had just the right touch of letting a student learn scientific independence,” Stevens said. “If we could take one lesson away from Bob, it would be the balance of mentoring strong independence and gentle guidance that is so difficult to achieve.”

Bau is survived by his wife, Margaret Churchill; three children from his first marriage; and his mother, Maria Lourdes Bau, in Hong Kong.

A funeral mass will be held Jan. 17 at 11:30 a.m. in the Risen Christ Chapel at Holy Cross Cemetery, 5835 W. Slauson Ave., Culver City. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to The Robert Bau Memorial Fund at the department of chemistry.

A special tribute is planned March 19 during a previously scheduled symposium in his honor at USC’s Seeley G. Mudd Auditorium.

01/07/09
In Memoriam: C. Sylvester Whitaker, 73: USC College’s professor emeritus and former dean of social sciences was an expert in the political development of Africa.
C. Sylvester Whitaker Jr., professor emeritus of political science and former dean of social sciences at USC College, died Nov. 29 in Waterville, Maine, following a struggle with cancer. He was 73.

A native of Pittsburgh, Pa., and graduate of Swarthmore College, Whitaker received a doctorate from Princeton University and became an expert in the political development of Africa. A noted analyst of comparative and international politics, his other research interests included multiethnic societies, transnationalism and international racial relations.

Whitaker lectured throughout the world, discussing African and Third World politics and economics.

A practicing Quaker and lifelong sports fan (particularly of his beloved USC Trojans and Pittsburgh Steelers), he also served as a professor and administrator at UCLA, Princeton University, and Rutgers University.

He is survived by his wife Shirley Whitaker; his sons Mark and Paul; two stepsons; two grandchildren; and his sister Cleo McCray.

According to his wishes, he will be cremated and his ashes will be buried in a memorial service to be scheduled near his home in Canaan, Maine, in the spring.

12/11/08
In Memoriam: Mitchell Lurie, 86: The renowned clarinetist worked on several acclaimed movies and taught at USC Thornton.
Mitchell Lurie, a renowned clarinetist and clarinet teacher who taught for many years at the USC Thornton School of Music and the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, died of pneumonia Nov. 24 at his home in West Los Angeles. He was 86.

Lurie joined USC in 1952 and taught clarinet and woodwind chamber music until several years ago. For more than 20 years, he had similar duties at the Music Academy of the West in the summer.

He also presented clinics, seminars and workshops across the United States and around the world, including the first International Clarinet Seminar in Australia in 1976.

Pablo Casals, the great Spanish cellist and conductor with whom Lurie once performed, called him the “ideal clarinetist.”

A Brooklyn native who grew up in Los Angeles, Lurie was the principal clarinetist for the Pittsburgh Symphony and then the Chicago Symphony in the late 1940s.

As a top clarinetist for Hollywood studios, he contributed to the scores for such movies such as The Apartment, Dr. Zhivago and Mary Poppins.

Later he became a distinguished chamber musician who perhaps was best known for performances with the Budapest String Quartet and the Muir String Quartet.

As a soloist, Lurie performed the 1967 West Coast premiere of Aaron Copland’s “Clarinet Concerto,” and he later performed the U.S. premiere of Pierre Boulez’s “Domaines.”

Lurie made numerous recordings over the decades, but one of the more noteworthy was his CD of the Brahms and Mozart clarinet quintets, which are the central chamber music pieces for the clarinet.

Over the years, Lurie developed reeds, ligatures and mouthpieces widely used around the world.

In addition to his sons, Lurie is survived by his wife Leona; five grandchildren; and a great-grandson.

A memorial concert and celebration of his life and work will be held at USC early next year.

12/08/08
In Memoriam: James C. Warf, 91: USC College’s Distinguished Professor emeritus was an expert on nuclear chemistry as well as a peace activist.
James C. Warf, a professor emeritus of nuclear chemistry considered a “citizen scientist” because of his work toward world peace, died Nov. 7. He was 91.

Warf, who joined USC College in 1948 and retired 40 years later, remained an active scholar until shortly before his diagnosis of metastatic cancer of the spine in June.

He died at his home in Franklin Hills, surrounded by his family, said his son Curren Warf, associate professor of clinical pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

In 2001, Warf earned a USC Faculty Lifetime Achievement Award and USC Distinguished Emeriti Award.

“My father was a very gentle, intelligent man who was concerned about poverty and human suffering,” his son said. “He was sincere in trying to make a difference.”

A Ph.D. student at Iowa State University in the mid-1940s, Warf was a leader of the analytical and inorganic chemistry sections on the Manhattan Project, which developed the first nuclear weapons during World War II.

After the United States’ atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, he helped found the Federation of American Scientists, created to warn public and policy leaders of the dangers of nuclear proliferation.

In February, months before his diagnosis, Warf co-wrote “The Future of Nuclear Power,” which was published in the Monthly Review. The article argued against the building of new nuclear plants to help offset global warming, a solution proposed by some, because it would create an enormous hazard to the earth, generating radioactive waste lasting for untold years.

“The most important principle of environmental thought is that of safeguarding the earth for future generations,” Warf wrote. “To turn to nuclear power as a solution to global warming would be to abandon that trust.”

Larry Singer, professor of chemistry at the College since 1967, said that Warf was deeply devoted to his students, and he felt an obligation to educate the public at large and become a spokesperson for the sciences.

“I think of James Warf as a ‘citizen scientist,’ ” Singer said. “He was a humanist. He really cared about humanity.”

Warf, who held four patents on techniques to extract plutonium from nuclear fission waste, became an activist after the method was used to proliferate nuclear weapons worldwide.

“He came to see the inherent dangers and began working toward world peace,” Singer said.

He gave lectures worldwide on nuclear disarmament, testified before congressional hearings and in 1994 traveled to Kazakhstan with a team investigating the former Soviet nuclear warhead test site and health problems resulting from radioactive fallout.

After more than 50 years researching the chemistry of radioactive materials, he wrote All Things Nuclear (Figueroa Press, 2005), a 732-page book detailing all manifestations of radioactivity.

“But he was not anti-nuclear,” Singer said. “One has to be very clear on that.”

Warf advocated nuclear technology for positive uses such as radiation therapy for cancer, Singer added.

Warf was also a linguist and world traveler, spending a cumulative total of nine years in Indonesia and Malaysia, where he taught chemistry and wrote text books.

“He had an international view of his work,” said David Dows, professor emeritus of chemistry, who joined the College in 1956. “He was sympathetic to all people.”

Born Sept. 1, 1917, in Nashville, James Curren Warf Jr. was the youngest of three children. His family moved to Troy, Tenn., before settling in Tulsa, where he thrived in science since boyhood.

At Iowa State University, he met and eventually married Lee Walker, who taught piano and elementary school. Warf studied for a year in Switzerland on a Guggenheim fellowship before his arrival at USC. Warf and his wife had three children before Lee Warf died in 1959.

In 1966, Warf married Kyoko Sato and continued his teaching and peace activism.

Warf is also survived by daughter Sandy Warf of Seal Beach; son Barney Warf of Lawrence, Kan.; three grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

A memorial service will be held Dec. 13 from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Vineyard Room at the Davidson Conference Center.

Contributions in his name may be made to the Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic. For four decades, Warf read chemistry texts for the organization.

11/13/08
In Memoriam: William H. Perkins, 85: USC Annenberg’s distinguished emeritus professor was an expert on stuttering who challenged conventional beliefs about the speech disorder.
William H. Perkins, a professor of speech pathology who was a nationally recognized authority on the speech disorder stuttering, died Oct. 6 as a result of complications from a fall in Baldwin Hills. He was 85.

Perkins was professor emeritus of speech pathology and otolaryngology in the Keck School of Medicine of USC and speech communication at the USC Annenberg School for Communication. He was awarded distinguished emeritus status in 1991.

“Dr. Perkins was a warm and friendly colleague and an outstanding departmental citizen,” said professor Tom Hollihan, who worked with Perkins at USC Annenberg. “He possessed a quick wit and a great sense of humor.”

As director of The Stuttering Center at USC, he oversaw a speech clinic that specialized in the treatment of stuttering, also known as stammering. At the end of his career, Perkins became an outspoken critic of his field, calling into question the conventional understanding of stammering and how it should be treated.

“I realized that the road we were on was not leading to an understanding of the fundamental nature of stammering; it was a circular track that was being repaved regularly,” he wrote. “I left the paving crew to blaze my own trail in a different direction by following markers of those who stammer.”

He went on to advocate a scientific approach that accounted for the subjective experience of the stutterer. “If science requires objectifying stutterers to the extent of divesting them of their subjective experience because it cannot be measured traditionally by what is readily observed,” he said, “then science is the loser.”

Born in Kansas City, Mo., in 1923, Perkins often attributed his stubbornness in his quest to solve stuttering to his Missouri roots.

After earning his B.S. in 1943 from Missouri State College, Perkins enlisted in the Navy and served in World War II as a gunnery officer stationed in the South Pacific. He retired from the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1983 as a lieutenant commander.

Perkins earned his M.A. from the University of Missouri in 1949 and his Ph.D. in 1952. He once wrote that he turned to “speech pathology as an employable alternative” to an acting career, in which he dabbled during his college years. It was on the stage that he met his wife, Jill Thompson.

Perkins was a fellow of the American-Speech-Language-Hearing Association and a member of the American Psychological Association, Acoustical Society of America, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Association of University Professors, American Cleft Palate Association and Sigma Xi.

Perkins came to USC in 1952 as an assistant professor and was named an associate professor in 1956 and a professor of communicative disorders in 1960. He received a Dart Outstanding Teaching Award for innovative teaching in 1973.

“Dr. Perkins was known throughout the world for his pioneering research and writings in speech disorders,” said J. Wesley Robb, a distinguished emeritus professor of religion who has been a friend and colleague of Perkins since 1955. “He was a model teacher-scholar, and in a sense he was a Renaissance man in that he had an inquisitive mind that went beyond the borders of his own discipline.”

Perkins was editor of the Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders from 1977 to 1981. He received the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s highest honor in 1973.

In addition to his own publications, he was a regular contributor to the Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders and the Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, both published by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and the Journal of Behavioral Research and Therapy.

After retiring in 1988, Perkins devoted his career to solving what he called “the unsolvable problem of stammering.” It was his controversial book, Tongue Wars: Recovery From Stammering, that challenged the profession to reconsider long-held beliefs.

During his tenure at USC, Perkins participated in an informal discussion group with faculty members of diverse backgrounds. “The thing that was intriguing about Dr. Perkins was his broad intellectual interest,” Robb said. Discussions focused on a range of topics from art and music to religion and political science. “It was in that context that we became close friends and colleagues.”

Perkins is survived by his wife Jill and sons Scott, Kyle, Christopher and daughter-in-law Denise. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Alzheimer’s research.

10/23/08