Last June, Clara McLeod was let go from Washington University after working as a librarian for its earth, environmental and planetary sciences department for more than 37 years. Now the university is naming its newest dormitory building, a 600-bed residential hall that’s breaking ground this summer, after her, as well as her late husband James McLeod.
Despite Clara McLeod’s lengthy tenure in library services, she was given just a week’s notice prior to her termination last summer, which the head of the library suggested to the campus paper had stemmed from budget cuts. (WashU spokesperson Kedra Tolson says that the university does not comment on personnel matters.)
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McLeod, though, brushes off the idea that she would be upset. She says, “Even through those trying times I have felt the love and the support of so many people here at the university that it never occurred to me that I would ever not be a member of the family here.”
Her faith was justified. Last December, the university rehired McLeod as a special advisor and assistant to the vice chancellor for student affairs. She tells SLM, “I know that people ask me all the time about still being here, and I could think of no place that I would rather be than where I am here at the university that I love, that has shown such a love for me.”
But the big revelation of that love was still to come.
A few weeks ago, McLeod thought that she was attending a reception at the Chancellor’s house to mingle with some WashU Board of Trustees members who were in town for the weekend. Little did she know that she was at the surprise announcement of the residence hall named in her and her husband’s honor.
“My first thoughts were of course of James,” McLeod says. “I really haven’t processed it, because I do believe that he would be completely embarrassed by this. He would have probably found another person that he thought was more worthy of such an honor. But, I also was overwhelmed by feelings of gratitude.”
During her time with the library, McLeod led Geoscience Librarianship 101, the annual professional development workshop, and has held a number of leadership roles in Geoscience Information Society committees. She says her new job with the university will let her apply skills learned as a librarian in a new capacity. She is assisting with identifying and interviewing people who have had a large impact on WashU’s history for an exhibit in the new alumni building.
Her late husband James McLeod—who went by Jim—started at WashU as an assistant professor of German in 1974 and went on to serve as both the vice chancellor for students and the dean of the College of Arts & Sciences simultaneously.
Although James passed away in 2011 after a two-year battle with cancer, the impact of his 35-year tenure is felt on the campus to this day. He was instrumental in reimaging the South 40 residential community, the village-like residential area for first and second year students. In addition, he oversaw the construction of the Danforth University Center, or DUC, to help students, faculty and staff better meet and engage with each other.
Rob Wild, WashU’s dean of students and associate vice chancellor, says the decision to name the dorm after the McLeods was made by the university’s Board of Trustees.
“Nobody has had a greater impact on the student experience in the past 50 years than Dean McLeod,” Wild wrote via email.
A scholarship fund started in James McLeod’s honor in 2010 received nearly $4 million in contributions from nearly 1,500 people. It was used to establish the McLeod Scholars program. James McLeod also established WashU’s cohort scholarship programs including the Ervin, Rodriguez, and Danforth Scholars programs, which offer support and scholarships to service-oriented students from historically underrepresented backgrounds.
Tim Bono, WashU’s current associate dean for student affairs, believes he was extremely lucky to be mentored by James. “He led with profound kindness and humility, giving his heart and soul to WashU and inspiring everyone around him to do the same. Years later, that ethos remains the beating heart of our campus,” Bono wrote via email.
Exceptional writing by first-year undergraduate students is also honored with the McLeod First-Year Writing Prize. McLeod says she often meets with the student recipients when she is able.
“I do think that James felt that the student experience is the thing that actually makes higher education institutions great,” she says.
Typically, major buildings on campus are named after donors. The naming of the dorm after the McLeods despite no monetary commitment by them puts the dorm on par with Wrighton Hall and the Danforth University Center, both of which are named after former chancellors.
The upcoming McLeod House is not the only newly named building on campus, as a few days prior to the announcement, WashU’s School of Public Health received a $200 million commitment from Andrew and Jane Bursky for the naming rights to the school. The $200 million donation is the largest ever received by WashU.
The McLeod House is slated to be ready for students by the fall of 2028, and a groundbreaking ceremony for the building will be held later this summer according to a WashU press release about the dorm.
