Former Provost Charles Kiesler dies

Funeral services will be held today in California for Charles A. Kiesler, Vanderbilt provost from 1985 to 1992, who died last week in San Diego. He was 68.

As provost, Kiesler oversaw increases in faculty salaries and recruitment of minority and women faculty at Vanderbilt. The number of minority faculty on the tenure track increased 48 percent and the number of women tenure-track faculty members increased 60 percent over the seven years he was Vanderbilt provost.

A native of St. Louis, Kiesler left Vanderbilt in August 1985 to become chancellor of the University of Missouri at Columbia, a post he held for four years. At the time of his death, he was directing the Fund for the Advancement of Psychological Sciences for the American Psychological Society, which he helped found.

He was dean of the Carnegie-Mellon University College of Humanities and Social Sciences from 1983 to 1985 and the executive officer of the American Psychological Association from 1975 to 1979.

In 1988 Kiesler was elected as a member to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. In 1989 he became the second person to receive the American Psychological Association’s Award for Distinguished Contributions to Research in Public Policy.

He is survived by his wife, Teru Morton; five children and two grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the Fund for the Avancement of Psychological Sciences, c/o the American Psychological Society, 1010 Vermont Ave. NW, Suite 1100, Washington, D.C. 20005.

Posted 10/15/02 at 10:00 a.m