UPDATE (Monday, Dec. 4): UC Riverside professor Pam Clute’s death ruled suicide; husband Steve charged

UPDATE (Saturday, Aug. 27): Memorial details have been announced.

Pam Clute, a long-time UC Riverside professor who made a name for herself by encouraging young students, particularly women, to pursue studies in math and science, has died. She was 66.

Clute spent 40 years as a math instructor – working in middle and high school before moving to UCR – and was the founder of UCR’s ALPHA Center, which promoted careers in science, technology, engineering and math. She was married to former Assemblyman Steve Clute.

She was widely known in education circles, not only for her work, but for her personality.

“Anybody that worked with Pam remembers Pam Clute,” said former Riverside Mayor Ron Loveridge. “She had a dynamic presence.”

Loveridge, now director of the Center for Sustainable Suburban Development at UCR, said Clute will be remembered for attracting K-12 students to STEM subjects. She was a pioneer, he said, in showing girls that they, too, could pursue the typically male-dominated fields.

“She took ideas and concepts from math and made them understandable,” he said.

In 2012, Clute was honored as a Leading Woman in STEM Education by the State of California. She also was named Riverside County First District Woman of the Year in 2011. And in 2004, President George W. Bush awarded her the National Science Foundation’s Presidential Award of Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. She was also an award winning baker.

Clute established the ALPHA Center at UCR in 1998. The center’s mission was to put secondary students on a college path, especially in STEM subjects. She also established the Girls Excelling in Math and Science program, specifically geared toward middle school students.

After leaving the classroom, she served as assistant vice chancellor of educational and community engagement. Upon her retirement from UCR last year, she was given the title of assistant vice chancellor emerita. She also became a member of the UCR Foundation Board of Trustees.

Joe Childers, dean of UCR’s Graduate Division, said he knew Clute for 25 years. He said she was deeply devoted to reaching out and helping develop younger students.

“I think Pam felt she was most a part of the community when she was able to give back,” Childers said. “I think she recognized the possibility of things that were being overlooked especially in STEM education. By giving back in that way, it was going to be paid forward tremendously. We were going to get great teachers, great researchers, great scientists. I think seeing students going forward and achieving, she got a lot of satisfaction out of that.”

Clute also was a fitness bug. She developed a class called Ab Attack. Childers, a karate enthusiast, said they often ran into each other at the recreation center.

“We would see each other in the hall. She would always come up and give me a hug and always had something exciting to talk about with the campus,” he said. “She had just an enormous amount of energy. (She was) always concerned about where UCR was headed and wanted to make sure it was in a positive direction.”

Riverside Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Cindy Roth said Clute was driven.

“I’ve never seen someone with so much energy,” Roth said. “She was charismatic, passionate. She’d be involved in San Bernardino County, Riverside County, anywhere she could go to get more people interested (or) to get more funding for science and for math.”

Roth said Clute helped organize Riverside’s Science and Technology Education Partnership, participated in the city’s Long Night of Arts and Innovation and represented UCR with the Inland Empire Economic Partnership.

“Anywhere she could plug in,” Roth said, “That’s what she did.”

Roth said she was surprised to hear of Clute’s death, especially in light of how well Clute took care of herself. Besides teaching exercise classes, she said, Clute was fastidious about her diet, often bringing her own food to luncheons.

“We always joked (that) we wanted to see her take a bite of dessert,” Roth said. “It’s such a shock.”

Details of Clute’s death were not immediately available. Efforts to reach a family representative were unsuccessful.

Contact the writer: mmuckenfuss@pe.com or 951-368-9595