 When Judge Robert Maclay Widney set out to create a university in Los Angeles in the 1870s, he received assistance from donors including Childs.In 1879, Childs contributed a considerable amount of land to the founding of the University of Southern California, which opened in 1880.He died at his Los Angeles Main Street home in 1890, leaving six living children (out of ten) and a widow who survived him by over 40 years.