ALUMNI PROFILE: BRUCE W. KLUNDER

Bruce W. Klunder, Oregon State ‘55, #216 Acacia Brother, Presbyterian Minister, Civil Rights Activist

“To take a more active part...”

By Frank Chown, Oregon State ’10 & Benjamin Turconi, California ’12

Rev. Bruce Klunder, Oregon State ’55, was many things. He was a son, a husband, a Presbyterian minister, a civil rights activist, and our brother. He gave his life in the fight for racial equity and is one of fortyone individuals remembered on the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama. Acacians dedicate themselves to the values of Knowledge, Virtue, and Truth. But while it is easy to say the words, it is difficult to live in accordance with those values as Bro. Klunder did.

Bruce “believed his life must be his sermon” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). As a student at Oregon State, he heard about the bus boycotts in Montgomey, Alabama and became aware of the inequities of Jim Crow segregation. He began raising money to support the boycotters and began discussing civil rights issues with others. As the SPLC puts it, “his life mission had began.”

On April 7, 1964, Brother Klunder was crushed by a bulldozer while protesting the construction of a segregated school in Cleveland, Ohio. His death was ruled an accident but it still polarized the Cleveland community and inspired others to continue the fight against Jim Crow segregation.

So, who was Bruce Klunder?

He was born in Greeley, Colorado on July 12, 1937 and moved to Oregon at a young age. He graduated a year early with the Baker High School class of 1954 and made his way to Oregon State, then known as Oregon Agricultural College, pledging Acacia in the Spring of 1955. He was initiated on Dec 3, 1955. While attending college, he met the love of his life, Joanne Lehman, who would support his efforts to fight for equity. They were married Dec 22, 1956.

After graduating from OAC in 1958 with honors, he enrolled at Yale Divinity School and would later graduate with a B.D. Divinity Degree in 1961. After moving to Cleveland, he was ordained in the Presbyterian Church on March 4, 1962.

Klunder was described by those who knew him as “soft-spoken, almost shy. He smiled a great deal, never showed anger...Bruce was soft-spoken – but don’t get the idea he lacked courage. It was just that he didn’t believe in a lot of loud talk. We all knew how he felt, but he never tried to shove his ideas

Back in Oregon, one of Rev. Klunder’s closest friends was Jack Richard, sports editor of the Corvallis Gazette-Times. Richard said: “We never thought of Bruce as any kind of extremist. He seemed to feel things deeply, though. When he was in charge of the YMCA Roundtable, a discussion group, there were a lot of meetings on the civil rights issue.”

Among Bruce’s closest friends were fellow Acacian Bobb McKittrick, Oregon State ’58, famed offensive line coach with the San Francisco 49ers, and winner of five Super Bowls; and Mike Doherty, the winningest high school basketball coach in Oregon history who won three state titles during his long career.

Bruce was described by Doherty as “a man who was respected and wellliked by all acquainted with him…I knew Bruce well, and I am sure I speak for the late Bobb McKittrick in assuring all who did not know Bruce that he was a good man with a good heart.”

Doherty wrote, “Our home town of Baker City should be proud to honor one of its finest sons.” (Baker City Herald). According to Doherty, after graduating from Baker High, “Klunder, Doherty, and McKittrick were roommates at Oregon State University. The three roommates squeezed into a two-man dormitory room as freshmen.”

By 1964, Bruce was well known in Cleveland for his civil rights activities. He was a frequent picketer who demonstrated “against segregated public facilities and discrimination in hiring.” (Waymarking). He had “led a restaurant sit-in in Sewanee, Tennessee in 1962.” (Waymarking). And “was among the demonstrators who sat in Gov. James A. Rhodes’ office in an effort to have a fair housing bill passed.” (Plain Dealer).

It was believed by Klunder and his fellow picketers that these new schools “would perpetuate de facto racial segregation caused by housing patterns.”

At his death he left behind a widow, Joanne Klunder, 26, and his children Janice, 6, and Douglas, 3. His widow described him this way. “My husband died doing what he believed in, what we both believed in. He died loving everyone. He died in hoping that what he was doing might bring love of all people for each other.” (Plain Dealer).

Today Bruce is recognized as a civil rights martyr. Alongside Martin

Luther King Jr, he is one of 40 civil rights martyrs inscribed on the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, dedicated in 1989.

He was recognized more recently by a memorial plaque in the Baker City, Oregon, Courthouse, dedicated in 2009.

And if you happen to be in Corvallis, Oregon, he has a memorial bench on the north side of the Memorial Union building. The bench was dedicated and paid for by friends McKittrick and Doherty.

Interested? Learn more at acacia.org/klunder

“My husband died doing what he believed in, what we both believed in. He died loving everyone. He died in hoping that what he was doing might bring love of all people for each other.”