KIESLER, Charles A(dolphus) 1934-2002

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born August 14, 1934, in St. Louis, MO; died of a heart attack October 11, 2002, in San Diego, CA. Psychologist, educator, and author. Kiesler is best remembered as an effective university administrator and officer of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society. He was educated at Michigan State University, where he received his M.A. in 1960, and Stanford University, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1963. After graduating, he worked briefly as an assistant professor at Ohio State University before joining Yale University, where he taught until 1970. During the early 1970s Kiesler was a professor of psychology and chairman of the department at the University of Kansas, and for the remainder of the decade was executive director of the American Psychological Association, where he is credited with resolving the organization's financial crisis. Joining Carnegie-Mellon University in 1979, he was a psychology professor and then head of the department until 1983, when he became dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Kiesler's administrative talents were put to use again in 1992 when he became chancellor at the University of Missouri. The university was suffering from low enrollment at the time, and Kiesler turned the institution around by offering student tuition incentives, especially to minority students. He increased the number of black students by fifty-seven percent during his tenure, before arguments with the board of curators led to Kiesler's removal in 1996. Kiesler was also the founder of the American Psychological Society, as well as the author of several books, including The Psychology of Commitment: Experiments (1971), Mental Hospitalization: Myths and Facts about a National Crisis (1987), and The Unnoticed Majority in Psychiatric Inpatient Care (1993).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

books

Sheehy, Noel, Antony J. Chapman, and Wendy A. Conroy, editors, Biographical Dictionary of Psychology, Routledge (London, England), 1997.

Who's Who in America, 56th edition, Marquis (New Providence, NJ), 2001.

periodicals

Los Angeles Times, October 16, 2002, p. B10.

Washington Post, October 21, 2002, p. B7.