USC President Steven B. Sample, who succeeded James Zumberge in 1991, said: “For more than two decades, Marilyn Zumberge embraced and flourished in her role as a dean’s, chancellor’s and president’s wife. She always represented USC with grace, style and dignity, but not the ‘Grande Dame’ kind of dignity. Marilyn didn’t have a pretentious bone in her body. She was down to earth, good-natured, good-humored, unflappable and brimming with common sense – all extremely useful traits for being a counselor and confidante to a university president.

“Marilyn’s selfless dedication to the vitality of the entire university was valued and admired by all who knew her, and she will be remembered as one of the great first ladies of USC.”

She was born on Feb. 24, 1925, in Oak Park, Ill. She attended Lawrence College (now Lawrence University) in Appleton, Wis., where she was a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. She graduated with a bachelor of arts in psychology and married James Herbert Zumberge 10 days later.

Thirty-three years of academic life spent in Minnesota, Michigan, Arizona, Nebraska and Texas culminated in James and Marilyn’s 1980 move to Los Angeles, where James became the ninth president of USC.

In 2003, USC’s Science Hall was rededicated as Zumberge Hall in honor of James and Marilyn Zumberge. The James and Marilyn Zumberge Scholarship Fund was created in 1985. Marilyn’s portrait hangs in the second-floor gallery in the north wing of USC’s Bovard Administration Building.

Marilyn Zumberge was a member of the USC/Norris Cancer Hospital Auxiliary, where there is a wing named after her husband; Town & Gown of USC; USC Associates; USC Faculty Women; Friends of the USC Libraries; and the Visiting Nurses Association of Los Angeles. She was also active in suicide prevention while she lived in Dallas, Texas.

She is survived by siblings Shirley, James and Barbara; children John, JoEllen, James and Mark; and eight grandchildren.