Robert M. Widney

Robert Maclay Widney (December 23, 1838 – November 14, 1929) was an American lawyer, judge, and one of the founders of the University of Southern California (USC).

Widney left Ohio in September 1855 and spent two years hunting and trapping on the Great Plains and in the Rocky Mountains.

Los Angeles was still a growing frontier town in the early 1870s, when a group of public-spirited citizens led by Judge Robert Maclay Widney first saw the need and imagined establishing a university in the city.

[1] The gift provided land for a campus as well as a source of endowment, the seeds of financial support for the nascent institution.

The bronze monument, sculpted by Christopher Slatoff, stands on campus at the entrance of the Widney Alumni House.