UCLA colleagues and students remember slain professor at emotional vigil

UCLA student Alejandro Rodriguez has fond memories of his teacher William “Bill” Klug. The kind and patient sandy-haired engineering professor was always available for office hours at the Westwood campus.

“He wanted you to lea,” said Rodriguez, 22.

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Rodriguez was among hundreds of students and faculty who gathered Friday afteoon in a shady courtyard to remember the 39-year-old Klug, slain Wednesday by a former student, police say.

Tears and laughter punctuated the short ceremony, held outside the university’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.

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Remembering Klug’s “contagious curiosity,” UCLA Engineering Dean Jayathi Murthy moued her colleague, who she said was in the prime of his career. She cited his accomplishments as a researcher and his joyful approach to teaching.

“What can I say that’s equal to this event, to this loss?” she asked, her voice full of sadness.

The ceremony was held yards away from the building where Klug was killed by Miesota resident Mainak Sarkar, who eaed his doctorate at UCLA in 2013, police say. Sarkar also shot to death his wife, Ashley Hasti, 31, from whom he was separated, police believe.

The UCLA murder-suicide prompted a lockdown of the Westwood campus, forcing students to hide in classrooms and offices during a police sweep.

The chaos of Wednesday seemed far away two days later, however, as colleagues recalled some of their favorite moments with Klug, and remembered his longtime love of the Dodgers.

Professor Jeff Eldridge, who taught alongside Klug, revealed his affectionate term for the El Segundo resident: Klug was “his work spouse.”

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Klug was one of those “people who we look forward to talking to in the moing, to venting to,” Eldridge said. “You can have more than one work spouse,” Eldridge added, prompting laughter.

A small pamphlet handed out to mouers listed Klug’s academic and personal accomplishments. He’d recently worked with colleagues at the David Geffen School of Medicine to better understand the electromechanics of the heart. He’d also received numerous honors, including a 2008 National Science Foundation Career Award and his department’s 2007 Samueli Teaching Award.

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He is survived by his wife Mary Elise, also a UCLA alum, and two children.

UCLA biology student Eric Wong never met Klug. But the 21-year-old came to the vigil and quietly stood alongside other mouers.

“I wanted to lea more about him and his life,” Wong said.