In 1993 Margaret Klein, wife of history professor Milton M. Klein, established the Milton M. Klein History Studies Endowment to honor him and his work. In early 2000, when Dr. Susan Stussy died at age 54 of breast cancer, Klein learned that she had made a generous gift to the endowment, allowing extension of the lecture series and making possible a nonservice fellowship for graduate study (established in 2002). Stussy had taken four classes with Klein while working toward her PhD, which she earned in 1983, and had stayed in contact with him as she held library positions at several colleges, earned a doctor of jurisprudence degree (1994), and established a practice in Kansas City representing, for the most part, poor families of the area.