Henry Klein, 92, longtime Harcum College administrator

Henry Klein, 92, of Center City, a former public-relations executive and educator with a long connection to Harcum College, died Monday, Nov. 15, at his home.

In 1952, Dr. Klein joined the board of what was then Harcum Junior College, a two-year women's school in Bryn Mawr. In 1957, he became the first director of development and public relations in Harcum's 42-year history. As director, he expanded enrollment and oversaw community outreach programs. He later was dean of admissions.

Harcum called upon him again after its newly hired president died in 1982, and Dr. Klein served as interim president for a year.

In 1963, he established the American College Admissions Advisory Center in Center City. The nonprofit offered college counseling and orientation programs, and maintained a library of college catalogs for high school students. The center was awarded a grant in 1969 to provide academic information to 600 disadvantaged high school students.

While operating the center, Dr. Klein taught group dynamics and counseling courses at Temple and Villanova Universities and St. Joseph's College. He also wrote a careers column in The Inquirer and a book, College in Your Future.

In 1971, Dr. Klein prepared a special report on higher education for the Pennsylvania Senate Appropriations Committee. In it, he contended that too many professors were taking time away from their students to work on societal problems. "This time and energy," he wrote, "might have greater effect in the classroom spent instructing students who are preparing to become society's leaders."

For 25 years, until 2000, Dr. Klein assisted his wife, Naomi Becker Klein, owner of Lively Arts Group Tours. While his wife was planning trips to artistic, cultural, and historic sites in the United States, Canada, and Europe, he did the prep work, writing brochures and even cutting cheese for snacks for bus rides to New York, his family said.

The couple were members of the Oriental Rug Society and founding members of the Friends of the Barnes Foundation and enjoyed collecting art on their travels. In the 1970s, they cochaired the Committee to Save Soviet Jews.

Dr. Klein was born in Manayunk to Hungarian immigrant parents. He graduated from Overbrook High School, where he was editor of the newspaper and president of his senior class. He earned a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in education from the University of Pennsylvania and a doctorate in education from Temple.

During World War II, he served in the merchant marine.

After the war, he started Henry Klein Public Relations. One of his clients was the Philadelphia Flower Show. From 1952 until joining the Harcum staff in 1957, he was vice president of John F. Rich Co., a fund-raising firm.

In 1950, he and his brother, Philip, established the Junto Adult School. They also were founding members of the Friday the 13th Club, which met each Friday the 13th from 1936 to 2000. Dr. Klein, who continued the tradition after his brother died in 1982, told The Inquirer at the club's final meeting: "Years of walking around ladders, throwing salt over your shoulder, it's no fun. Maybe I'll get some luck now."

Dr. Klein taught himself to sail at 57, starting with a Sunfish and graduating to a 30-foot sailboat, and threatened to sail the Atlantic Ocean solo, his family said.

He bought a computer when he was 80 and continued to write. For the last several years he contributed restaurant reviews to Milestones, a publication of the Philadelphia Corp. for Aging.

In addition to serving on Harcum's board for more than 50 years, Dr. Klein served on the boards of Casa Farnese, a seniors residence in Center City; Community College of Philadelphia; and Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel in Center City.

In addition to his wife of 69 years, he is survived by sons Kenneth and Ronald; a daughter, Sharon Leib; five grandchildren; and a great-grandson.

Services were private.