Pasadena Resident, Steven Browning Sample, Former USC President Dies

Former USC president Steven Browning Sample, a long-time Pasadena resident who led the university through a time of remarkable transformation, died on Tuesday, March 29. He was 75.

Sample served as USC 10th president from 1991 to 2010. During his 19-year tenure, the university ascended the national academic ranks and became a highly selective undergraduate university. USC recruited many nationally prominent faculty, created a global presence, completed what was at the time the largest fundraising campaign ever in higher education and built partnerships in the communities surrounding USC’s campuses.

“Generations from now, those studying the history of our university will quickly find themselves learning the remarkable story of Steven Sample,” said USC President C. L. Max Nikias, in announcing Sample’s passing. “So many of USC’s successes, so much of our university’s current stature, can be traced back to Dr. Sample’s dynamic leadership, keen foresight, and extraordinary prudence. Dr. Sample stood over our university – and led our Trojan Family – as it began its singular transformation, and for this we should all be grateful.”

Nikias also considers Sample one of his “most significant and formative role models.”

“It was he who encouraged me to apply for the provost position at USC, and it was he who so often mentored me during my tenure as provost and as dean of our engineering school,” Nikias said. “Niki and I will miss him tremendously.”

Chairman John Mork of the USC Board of Trustees said Sample was responsible for “the most dramatic rise in quality and ranking of any American university.”

“From the very start he understood the entrepreneurial zeal of USC and fueled our desire to be excellent,” Mork said. “If there were a tag line for his leadership style, it would be, ‘Never let up.’ And the results were nothing short of spectacular.”

Steven Spielberg, a longtime USC supporter and university trustee, praised Sample for helping make the university home to USC Shoah Foundation – the Institute for Visual History and Education – which captures testimonies from survivors and witnesses to genocide, and for supporting the growth of the USC School of Cinematic Arts into “the greatest cinema school in the world.”

“While he left behind very big footprints, he gleefully encouraged others to fill them as President Nikias has done and will continue to do,” Spielberg said. “I’ll miss Steve, but just walking around campus, you can feel him everywhere.”

Sample was born in St. Louis, Mo., on Nov. 29, 1940. His mother was a civic activist, and his father worked as a sales manager for an electric motor company. He married his college sweetheart, Kathryn Brunkow of Park Ridge, Ill., while both were undergraduates at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

By age 24, he had earned three degrees there – a bachelor’s, a master’s and a PhD in electrical engineering, according to a profile released by USC.

Sample accepted a faculty position at Purdue University, continued his academic career at the University of Illinois and the University of Nebraska, and, at age 41, was named the 12th president of the State University of New York at Buffalo.

During his tenure, SUNY Buffalo was elected to the prestigious Association of American Universities, of which Sample later served as chairman.

Sample was a member of both the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He invented and patented several devices, including digital appliance controls and touch pads, now in use in more than 300 million microwave ovens and other home appliances worldwide.

He received honorary doctorates from Canisius College, Buffalo (1989), D’Youville College (2011), Hebrew Union College (1994), Northeastern University (2004), Purdue (1994), SUNY Buffalo (2006), the University of Nebraska (1995), the University of Notre Dame (2005) and the University of Sheffield, England (1991).

Among Sample’s achievements at USC was a remarkable ability to attract the resources the university needed to build endowment, develop academic programs and support campus improvements.

USC’s Building on Excellence campaign raised $2.85 billion, and the university became the first in the U.S. to receive five gifts of $100 million or more. During this time, USC also secured naming gifts for seven schools.

During the Sample years, USC’s international outreach grew exponentially, particularly in the Pacific Rim. He co-founded the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, a consortium of 45 leading research universities in the Pacific region, and promoted USC’s role in positioning Los Angeles as the de facto capital of the Pacific Rim.

USC became a leading destination for international students during Sample’s presidency. He opened international offices in Asia and convened USC’s first international conference in Hong Kong in 2001.

A cornerstone of Sample’s administration was building alliances with USC’s neighboring communities and transforming them. He launched the USC Good Neighbors Campaign, asking USC faculty and staff to contribute funds to transformative programs, such as the USC Neighborhood Academic Initiative, which prepares low-income students from the surrounding areas for admission to USC and other universities.

“The University of Southern California has been a point of convergence,” said the Rev. Cecil B. Murray, then pastor of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles, upon Sample’s 10-year mark as USC president. “I think that’s one of the brilliant points of the diamond of Steve Sample.”

USC students continues Sample’s passion for community service during “Friends and Neighbors Days” throughout the year.

Sample’s civic achievements were recognized with the Distinguished Business Leader Award from the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and the Heart of the City Award from the Central City Association of Los Angeles.

Sample is survived by his wife, Kathryn Brunkow Sample, who resides in Pasadena, and daughters Michelle Sample Smith and Elizabeth Sample, son-in-law Kirk Smith and grandchildren Kathryn and Andrew Smith.