Lew Klein, a Philadelphia television news executive who also taught countless future journalists for decades at Temple University, has died, the university announced Thursday. He was 91.
Klein served as an executive producer for "American Bandstand" and helped launch WPVI's Action News in 1970, the university said in a tribute posted online.
A spokesman for Temple said Klein taught at the university for 67 years. He died Wednesday evening.
"Lew Klein has left an indelible imprint on the lives of countless Temple students who have gone on to build successful careers in media, communication and related fields. Those graduates are Lew's true gift to journalism. His influence will be felt for generations to come," Temple President Richard M. Englert said in a statement.
In March 2017, the university's School of Media and Communication was renamed the Lew Klein College of Media and Communication.
"Through the decades of his remarkable career as a pioneer of television, Lew Klein taught part-time at Temple University, starting in 1952," noted Klein College Dean David Boardman. "He did that not for money, but as a way to serve his community and his profession by helping shape the journalists and broadcasters of the future."
Klein is survived by his wife, Janet, his children, Ellen and Stephen, granddaughter Anna and her husband John, and great-grandchildren Oscar and Miriam.
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Funeral services were not immediately known.
