In Memoriam: Don Kleine
April 12, 2012
Don Kleine, scholar of modern literature and member of the faculty from 1967 until his retirement in 2007, died on March 31, apparently of pneumonia, after having been hospitalized with a lung disorder; he was 82 years old.
Professor Don Kleine received his BA (1950) and MA (1953) degrees from the University of Chicago, served in the United States Army from 1954-56, and received a PhD from the University of Michigan in 1961. He was an assistant professor at Cornell University before joining the University of Maryland's English Department in 1967, where he was promoted to associate professor in 1972; he retired in the spring of 2007. Professor Kleine was a scholar of modern literature, especially of Katherine Mansfield, although he published essays on other writers and topics ranging from Henry Miller to Walden, the Kennedy-Nixon TV debates, Chekhov, and Evelyn Waugh. He had also been an associate editor of Epoch and a co-editor, 1970-75, of Conradian (which, interestingly, was then housed in our department). Professor Kleine was a high-spirited and very popular teacher of graduate and undergraduate courses, especially in Victorian literature, modern British literature, and children's literature. Faculty knew him as remarkably congenial, lively, and good-nature; the department will remember his collegial spirit and his love of literature and teaching.
Professor Don Kleine is survived by his wife Julie. Because he donated his remains to medical science, there were no arrangements for a funeral, although a memorial service might be announced.