Bruce W. Klunder

Bruce W. Klunder (July 12, 1937 – April 7, 1964) was an American Presbyterian minister and civil rights activist. He died when he was run over by a bulldozer while protesting the construction of a segregated school in Cleveland, Ohio. Klunder graduated in science from Oregon State University in 1958. While attending the school, he met his future wife, Joanne Lehman. The couple married on December 22, 1956. He earned his Bachelor of Divinity from Yale Divinity School in 1961. After college, Klunder and his wife moved to Cleveland where he was hired as assistant executive secretary of the Student Christian Union at Western Reserve University. He quickly became involved in the city's civil rights fight. He had a passionate interest in civil rights, headed the local chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and led a restaurant sit-in in Sewanee, Tennessee, in 1962. He and his wife had two young children at the time.