It’s true that there were no fatalities on the Rice campus from the 1918 influenza epidemic, but we did lose one exceptional person to the disease while he was away serving in the military. His name was Ira South and he was one of several South siblings who attended the Institute in its early years. Rice was a very small community at the time and the death of such a creative and promising young man made a deep impression on his fellow students. This appeared on the front page of the May 1, 1919 Thresher:
(I talked about Ira’s sister Ruby, who’s mentioned in the article, here. If you haven’t read it, go take a look. She’s truly worthy of admiration.)
This is the only image of Ira South I’ve ever come across:
