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In Memoriam: Lillian Fluor, 87

September 15, 2009 7:52 AM

  • In Memoriam: Lillian Fluor, 87
  • J. Robert Fluor with wife Lillian and son Peter J. Fluor '70, MBA '72 in the 1980s

Lillian Fluor, widow of former USC trustee J. Robert Fluor, died Sept. 2 at her home in Newport Beach. She was 87.

For more than 20 years, Fluor’s late husband headed the Fluor Corp., a Fortune 500 engineering, procurement, construction, maintenance and project-management firm that was founded by his grandfather as a construction company in 1912.

The company built USC’s Von KleinSmid Center for International and Public Affairs (dedicated on the University Park campus in 1966) and, together with the Fluor Foundation, has been responsible for more than $2.8 million in gifts to USC.

In 1976, the foundation endowed the John Robert Fluor Chair in Chemical Engineering, the first faculty chair created under the university’s Toward Century II fund-raising campaign. As the endowment grew in 2007, two additional chairs bearing the family name - the Fluor Professorship in Process Engineering and Fluor Early Career Chair - were created within the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

The Fluor family also supported the construction of Heritage Hall, opened in 1971, whose Peter E. Fluor Wing is named in memory of J. Robert Fluor’s father. In 1984, the 11-story hall previously known as Residence West was rededicated as Fluor Tower in appreciation of the Fluors’ contributions to USC.

A Trojan alumnus, J. Robert Fluor was a member of the USC Board of Trustees from 1962 until his death in 1984 at the age of 62. He served as board chairman from 1972 to 1980. Lillian Fluor was a dynamic partner with her husband throughout this time, participating in university events, cheering on the football team and acting as an enthusiastic ambassador for the university.

Lillian Fluor was a member of the Recognition Court of Town & Gown and in 1986 was honored by Town & Gown for her continuing support. She was also a dean’s level member of the USC Associates.

The former Lillian M. Breaux, Fluor graduated from Marywood High School in Anaheim and attended Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles. She married Fluor in 1944. The couple had two sons, John Robert Fluor II ’67 and Peter James Fluor ’70, MBA ’72, both of whom studied business at USC.

Lillian Fluor is survived by her sons and their wives, eight grandchildren, two great-granddaughters, sister-in-law Elizabeth Fluor Taylor and numerous nieces and nephews.

The family has asked that, in lieu of flowers, memorial donations be made to support scholarships at USC.