Kevin Klose, former dean and professor emeritus at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism, and former NPR president, died Wednesday from complications of Alzheimer’s disease. He was 85.
Klose served as dean from 2009-12, during which time the college completed and relocated to its state-of-the-art Knight Hall. He later taught journalism as literature, ethics and leadership courses at Merrill College and in the university’s honors program until he retired in 2020.
“It’s been extremely rewarding to be part of a college that’s moving so rapidly to the forefront of American journalism education,” Klose said at the time of his retirement. “Merrill competes for and attracts very bright, very motivated journalism students, who want to be a part of this rapidly changing industry. It was a pleasure to teach them during my time in College Park.”
Merrill College Dean Rafael Lorente said Klose was an exceptional teacher.
“Kevin knew how important it was to teach every generation about the need to understand and defend the Constitution. He had his students read from the Bill of Rights as a precursor to discussions,” Lorente said. “He was an influential journalist who brought that experience to the classroom and did an incredible job helping train the next generation of journalists. And his students adored him.”
Said former Merrill College Dean and Professor Lucy Dalglish: “We were blessed to have Kevin stay on the faculty for a few years after he stepped down as dean. Kevin never sought me out to present advice. But, if I knocked on his door, he was always welcoming and helpful.”
Klose came to the University of Maryland after a remarkable journalism career. He was president of NPR from 1998 to 2008 and was president emeritus immediately before being hired by Merrill College. (Read more about his accomplished tenure at NPR in this obituary.)
Klose also served two separate tours as president and CEO of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Munich and Prague, and 25 years as an editor and reporter at The Washington Post. He was The Post’s Moscow bureau chief from 1977-81. (See Washington Post obit here.)
Before joining NPR, he served successively as director of U.S. international broadcasting, overseeing the U.S. government’s global radio and television news services (1997-98); and president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), broadcasting to Central Europe and the former Soviet Union (1994-97). He joined RFE/RL in 1992 as director of Radio Liberty, broadcasting to the former Soviet Union in its national languages. Among his achievements, he relocated RFE/RL from Munich to Prague and helped devise and implement a strategy to refocus the mission of all U.S.-funded international broadcasting.
"Kevin made every effort to welcome me when I joined Merrill College — even dropping by in Scotland where I was working to take me out to lunch just after I was hired,” Associate Dean and Professor Sarah Oates said. “Little did he know I was in awe of him as a journalist in Russia and his work was part of what inspired me to study Russia. When I told him that, he laughed.”
In 2016, Klose was awarded the Karel Kramar Medal, among the Czech Republic’s highest state honors, for his “lifelong work for democracy, human rights and freedom” and “contributions to the transformation and development” of the country. Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka awarded Klose the medal at the Czech Embassy in a ceremony that Dalglish attended.
“To witness a prime minister thank my colleague for his contributions in defeating communism in Eastern Europe was inspiring,” Dalglish said.
A Harvard University graduate and former Woodrow Wilson National Fellow, Klose authored the book, “Russia and the Russians: Inside the Closed Society” — winner of the Overseas Press Club of America’s Cornelius Ryan Award — and co-authored several other books. He served two years active duty as a deck officer aboard a destroyer in the U.S. Pacific Fleet from 1962-64.
He is survived by his wife, Deborah Ashford, and his many children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.