Mary Elise Richter Klug is an engineer who was the widow of the late professor William Klug who died in the UCLA Shooting (June 1, 2016). Mary Elise Klug was born September 20, 1975 in Cerritos, California, a suburb of Los Angeles, California. Her parents are 71 year old Katherine Copeland Richter and 78 year old Richard George Richter. ^[1]

Mary Elise and William Klug met while attending Westmont College and married in December, 1999. A Go Fund Me page has been established to help the Klug family in light of the tragedy. ^[1]

Mary Elise works as an independent consultant in the filed of aeronautical software engineering.

Before becoming a consultant Mary worked for a government contractor that tests and designs jet engines.

Mary Elise is also an award winning ceramic artist, who runs her own card company called kung-fu kitty cards.

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Mary Elise is the one who encouraged William to pursue a career in teaching. William said “I was a teaching assistant at Westmont and held help sessions for students. Mary Elise often sat in on them and told me I should be a teacher,” he says. “She kept talking about it.”

Education

In 1997, Mary graudated from Westmont College with a bachelor's degree in engineering physics. Mary also earned a master’s degree in civil engineering at UCLA.