William Rea Keast

Education

Keast was born on November 1, 1914, in Malta, Illinois. He attended the University of Chicago and received his Bachelor's in 1936. He continued his doctoral studies at Chicago but World War II forced him to serve in the United States Armed Forces from 1941 to 1946. He rose to the rank of major. Returning to the University of Chicago on a Rockefeller Postwar Fellowship, he earned his doctorate in 1947.

Upon his graduation, he joined the University of Chicago faculty as assistant professor. In 1951 he moved to Cornell University as an associate professor and was promoted to professor in 1957. At Cornell, he became the chair of the Department of English in 1957, was named dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in 1962, and vice president for academic affairs in 1964. While at Cornell, he spent two years in England where he worked on his edition of Samuel Johnson's Lives of the Poets. Keast was an authority on 18th Century English Literature,

and an important contributor to the Chicago School of literary criticism.

In 1965, he was selected as president of Wayne State University. He presided over Wayne State during a period of campus unrest in the late 1960s, during which he came under pressure from the Wayne State Board of Governors to clamp down on anti-war and other campus demonstrations, and to regulate the student newspaper, the name of which and editorial policies had been radically changed by students. He was considered a moderating figure who was able to relate well to students. During his tenure, Wayne State expanded significantly. Student enrollment increased from fewer that 30,000 to more than 35,000; general fund expenditures increased from $34 million to nearly $70 million; major buildings were constructed, including the Law School, Matthaei Physical Education complex, Physics Building and the Palmer Avenue Parking Structure; and new programs were established, including the Center for Urban Studies and the Commission on the Status of Women. He retired from Wayne State in 1971, citing as the reason for his resignation, "presidential fatigue".

After resigning from Wayne State, Keast then served as chair of the Commission on Academic Tenure in Higher Education in Washington, D.C., and later joined the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin, where he served as chairman of the English Department and Director of Special Library Collections, and remained until his retirement in 1980.