Alan Hoskins
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Institutional Services
The next-to-last tie to the old downtown campus of Kansas City Kansas Community College is stepping down.
Dr. David Klein, who has served as Dean of Math, Science and Technology for the past 10 years, is retiring Aug. 1 after 38 years of service to the college. His retirement leaves physics instructor Gerald Hodgson as the only KCKCC employee left from the old campus at 7th and State. Hodgson just completed his 41st year this spring.
“It was time,” said Klein. “Thirty-eight years is enough. I’m going to miss it, especially the people you’ve worked with all those years.”
A leader in the 2YC3 national organization for chemistry teachers in two-year colleges during his 28 years as an award-winning chemistry instructor, Klein also founded the KCKCC baseball program.
His proudest moments, however, are “seeing all the students who went through our program who are now working as doctors, dentists, nurses and other professional people in Wyandotte County.”
A native New Yorker, Klein’s early days were spent in Brooklyn where he lived in the same neighborhood as Brooklyn Dodger legends Gil Hodges, Carl Furillo and Billy Cox before moving to Long Island in the eighth grade where he was a goalie on the lacrosse team at Huntington High School.
After graduation, Klein enrolled at the College of Emporia. “I knew I wanted to go to a small college west of the Mississippi and Emporia was the first school to accept me,” said Klein. “By going west of the Mississippi I knew I could not run home every weekend if things were going bad.”
After earning a BS in chemistry in 1965, Klein continued his education at the University of Missouri where he earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry in May of 1970 and was hired to teach chemistry at KCKCC that fall. “I was an adjunct teacher at UMKC and my in-laws who had been in the KCK public schools for many years told me that KCKCC had a chemistry job open,” said Klein. “So I called up Dr. Alton Davies who was the Dean of Instruction and he hired me. Johnson County had hired away the previous chemistry instructor and KCKCC was desperate and I was available.”
For 28 years – from 1970-1997 – Klein taught chemistry while earning such awards as the Outstanding KCKCC Faculty Award in 1985, KU Faculty Service Award in 1987, NISOD Teaching Award in 1995 and KU Faculty Recognition Award in 1997. His heavy involvement with 2YC3 included serving as the U.S. representative to the Two-Year College Chemistry Organization in Canada from 1996-2004. In addition, KCKCC has twice served as host to the national 2YC3 conference, first in 1988 and again in the early 2000’s.
Klein started the baseball program at KCKCC in 1974 and by 1976 had the Blue Devils in the National Junior College World Series for the first and only time. He gave up coaching after five years because of the heavy load of being both full-time teacher and coach and a desire to spend more time with his family. During those five years, Blue Devil teams won 72 percent of the time and Klein was named Central District Coach of the Year in 1976 and Region VI Coach of the Year in 1976 and 1977.
Ten years later, Klein was contacted by Avila University to start a baseball program there. He spent two years as head coach and five as assistant coach.
Klein was elevated to Dean of Math, Science and Technology in 1997 where he is in charge of 41 faculty and staff in the three departments.
Married, Klein and his wife, Margaret, a teacher in the KCK school district, have a son, Michael, of Kansas City; and a daughter, Katharine, of Nashville, Tenn. When he’s not spending time with two grandchildren in Nashville and one in Kansas City, he’s most likely be found at Sunflower Hills, Painted Hills, Dub’s Dread, Falcon Lakes, Falcon Valley or any other golf course he can get on.
Ending a 38-year career at Kansas City Kansas Community College, Dean of Math, Science and Technology Dr. David Klein is flanked by his predecessors, Brian Emerton (left) and Gerald Ulrich at a retirement reception.
(KCKCC Photo by Alan Hoskins)