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The news that Bob Michaelsen had passed from us was met with much sadness, both in the department and throughout UCSB. We all knew he had been ill for some time and that his health was failing, but of course we held out hope. He fell at home breaking his hip on Thursday, November 2, then following surgery two days later died at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara on Monday, November 6. He was 81 years old.

Bob came to UCSB in 1965 as a professor of religious studies and chair of the department. Earlier he had served as director of the School of Religion at the University of Iowa for 11 years. Prior to that he taught for a year at Yale Divinity School. He received a B.A degree from Cornell College (Iowa) in 1942 where he met and married Florence, his wife of 58 years; a B.D. degree from Yale University Divinity School in 1945; and a Ph.D. degree from Yale University in 1951.

At UCSB, he became part of a small, fledgling program that had just been organized as a Department of Religious Studies. Michaelsen joined W. Richard Comstock and Walter H. Capps as the third full-time member of the department. During the period he was chair from 1965 to 1971, Thomas F. O’Dea, Wilbur Fridell, Birger Pearson, and Gerald Larson joined the department. Earlier Paul Tillich had taught in the department as a visiting professor, and Michaelsen brought in Jonathan Z. Smith and Mircea Eliade as visiting professors. The department was at a crucial “take-off” stage. Under his leadership, the department developed a graduate program offering M.A. and Ph.D. degrees. This required several years of sustained work, establishing the program and recruiting graduate students. During that time, the Institute for Religious Studies was also established, which was designed to encourage research and scholarship. It is fair to say that the foundations were laid at this time for what would soon become a nationally recognized department. In this respect, all of us as faculty, graduate students, and alumni are greatly indebted to him.

Outside the department, he served in a variety of top administrative roles at the university, including terms as Acting Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and as The Vice Chancellor of UCSB under three Chancellors: Robert Huttenback, Daniel Aldrich, and Barbara Uehling. He served as Divisional Chair of the Academic Senate from 1975 to 1978. Richard Watts, the current Divisional Chair of the Senate, recalls the leadership Michaelsen provided for the university. “He was instrumental in setting directions for UCSB that have led to the phenomenal growth of our academic programs and to their increased stature,” said Watts. Not only was he able to get many new programs underway, he was highly respected for his sound judgment and fairness in dealing with his colleagues. Despite his having to make difficult administrative decisions, impossible to please everyone, still he was as Walter Capps once said, “the most trusted person at UCSB.”

“In addition to being a scholar of the first rank, Bob Michaelsen was a wise statesman of UCSB who served and led our institution brilliantly in numerous ways. We prosper on the foundation he laid before us,” said Henry T. Yang, Chancellor of UCSB. “He was a man of tremendous integrity, vision, and wisdom whose love for our institution was legendary. We will miss him, but his legacy will be everlasting.”

He was president of the American Academy of Religion in 1971-72, and was the author of four books, including The American Search for Soul and Piety in the Public School. Faculty and former students remember his great passion for American religious history, and particularly his interests in Native Americans, religion and law, and religion in the public schools. Recognized for his commitment to “religious studies” in a public university as opposed to theological study, or even “religion” departments in religiously affiliated colleges, he was sought after by many universities hoping to establish programs and departments of this kind.

In 1988, Bob was named the first J.F. Rowny Professor of Religion and Society, and retired the following year as a professor emeritus. For many years after he retired he rode his bicycle to the university for lectures and to chat with faculty and graduate students. Hiking and singing in his church choir were important to him. He gave time and energy to his long-standing concern about the plight of Native Americans and took up a new cause, prisoner visitation at the Lompoc Federal Penitentiary. Deeply devoted to this cause, he recruited others, including Libushka Smart and Terry Roof, to join him for monthly visits, giving time especially to those inmates who had no family members or friends visiting them regularly. He continued in the visitation up until about two years ago; on his last visit and in a wheelchair, he was recognized by prison officials for his many years of extraordinary service.

“What we all remember about Bob Michaelsen,” said Clark Roof, chair of the department, “more than just his visionary leadership in the early days of the department, obviously important, was his kind and gentle manner, the genuine and caring person he was. He had a wonderful combination of warmth and wit, and was always supportive of his colleagues. We shall miss him dearly.”

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