Ross Barbour, the last...

...founding member of the Four Freshmen, died at age 82. (I think that's him, second from the left in the clip above.) According to the Times, the original group was from Butler University in Indiana (my emphasis):

Instead of studying, the Four Freshmen ended up teaching a fresh approach to close harmony, influencing the Beach Boys, the Mamas and the Papas, the Lettermen, the Manhattan Transfer and other groups. Their sound was characterized by long, lush chords — Mr. Barbour called them “purple chords” — and an improvisational style that made four voices seem like five or six. Each of the singers also played at least one instrument.

Brian Wilson, the genius behind the sound of the Beach Boys, was inspired by seeing the Four Freshmen when he was 15 at the Coconut Grove in Hollywood in 1958. He called them his “harmonic education.”

Another founding member, Bob Flanigan, died in May.