William Rea Keast
William Rea Keast was an American scholar and academic administrator who served as president of Wayne State University from 1965 to 1971.Biography
Education
Dr. 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 the 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.Career
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.
In 1965, he was selected as president of Wayne State University. He retired from Wayne State in 1971 and joined the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin, where he remained until his retirement in 1980.
