Paul Klohr (1918–2008)
“Sitting in his living room overlooking the Walhalla ravine, I once asked Paul what he enjoyed most about his work, what made it worthwhile. Without hesitation he said, ‘the students’. To profess, for Paul, was to cultivate, care for, sometimes tend and gently challenge his students – always respectfully. To be with us in this way comprised part of his own quest for meaning, part of the answer to the question of being – of what it means to be human.” From Robert V. Bullough, Jr., The Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, 2001.
Professor Paul R. Klohr, one of the founding editors of Teaching Education, died on 3 June 2008, age 90, in Columbus, Ohio. He is survived by his daughter Amy Klohr of Cambridge, England, and two granddaughters: Laura, in London, and Helena, in Brighton, England. He graduated as a Rector Scholar, DePauw University in 1940, after which teaching high school humanities in Centralia, Illinois. Subsequent to receiving a PhD in 1950 with Harold Alberty at Ohio State University, he served as a member of the education faculty at Syracuse University and later as coordinator of curriculum and in‐service education in the Columbus Public Schools. In 1955, he was appointed as director of the Ohio State University Laboratory School. In the following years until his retirement in 1978, he taught graduate courses in curriculum theory, design, and development, also serving as Associate Dean of the College of Education. He was a member of the Executive Council of ASCD, writing a column for Educational Leadership, and assisted in the development of many curriculum organizations and journals through the 1960s–1980s as well as serving as visiting professor at the University of California, Davis, and University of Melbourne, Australia. He received the 1988 AERA Division B Lifetime Achievement Award and was viewed as a beloved and respected mentor to countless graduate students and junior colleagues. His was a life dedicated to teaching and mentoring and teaching education.