A prototypical professor

08 October 2003

Peg Skorpinski photo

Student, professor, dean, chancellor, vice president — Karl Pister has held more than 20 titles at the University of California, according to outgoing UC President Richard Atkinson. In each role — including dean of engineering at Berkeley, chancellor at UC Santa Cruz, and UC Vice President for Educational Outreach — Pister championed academic excellence, fought for diversity and access, and helped set the national agenda in higher education.

A Morrison Library reception on Sept. 24 celebrated completion of an oral history that chronicles his life and career. Pister, pictured with Regional Oral History Office interviewer Germaine LaBerge, is the “prototype of a faculty member at UC Berkeley,” Atkinson told the gathering. Chancellor Berdahl concurred: “Nobody represents this campus in its essence and in all of its manifestations as clearly, accurately, and truly as Karl Pister,” he said. The new volume is available through ROHO at the Bancroft Library.