Keller, University's first tenured female professor, dies at 83

Remembered for her groundbreaking work on the power structure of the American elite and for promoting women’s studies on campus, Keller joined Princeton in 1966 as a visiting lecturer. She became a full-time professor in 1968, a year before the University admitted women as students, and retired in 2004 after 38 years at Princeton.

An influential scholar, Keller wrote several books, two of which — “Beyond the Ruling Class: Strategic Elites in Modern Society,” published in 1963, and “Community: Pursuing the Dream, Living the Reality,” published in 2003 — are considered pioneering sociological works. Keller was influential in setting the tone of dialogue on mechanisms of societal power during the 1960s and ’70s.

Keller was one of the linchpins behind the establishment of the Program in the Study of Women and Gender (now the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies) in 1981. She was involved in University efforts to heighten the presence and role of women on campus, especially after all eight female junior faculty members seeking tenure in 1979 were denied.

“She gave the program tremendous nationwide stature at a moment when many women’s studies programs were struggling,” said Christine Stansell ’71, a former history professor at Princeton. Stansell, who worked with Keller in her capacity as the director of the women’s studies program from 1988 to 1992, referred to Keller as a “force of nature.”

Keller taught Princeton’s first course on gender and society in the 1970s. A true intellectual with diverse interests, her work also focused on social stratification, social architecture and the family. Her interests also extended to fields such as architecture, psychotherapy, and the sociology of space and popular culture. A lifelong learner, she earned a master’s in social work from Rutgers in 1994.

Keller was an important presence at the University at a time when women were often overlooked and dismissed by their male colleagues.

“People would see ‘S. Keller’ in the course catalog and automatically assume this was a man. They’d be completely shocked to find a woman lecturing!” English professor Deborah Nord said of Keller’s early days.

“I can’t imagine what it was like coming up at an institution so saturated with masculinity. But she never complained and had a very wry sense of humor about the immense self-importance of her male colleagues,” Stansell said.

Keller exuded confidence in her presence on campus, Stansell added. “At a time when female academics dressed to camouflage themselves, she always had a manicure. Her hair would be immaculately done. She was a fashion statement! I think it was also a kind of political statement. She was a woman, and she wasn’t going to hide herself as a neutered being,” she explained.

Keller’s colleagues, friends and students also remember her as vibrant, cosmopolitan and generous.

“She inspired admiration and affection,” said Viviana Zelizer, a sociology professor and Keller’s close friend of more than 35 years. “She was an extraordinary colleague and a very loyal and empathetic friend.”

“Her good humor made everything, including disagreements, a learning experience,” Nord said.

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Keller loved teaching and took great care to get to know her undergraduate and graduate students. “She gave great counsel and hosted me for dinner many times. We would often meet to discuss my dissertation chapters over coffee or a meal,” said D. Michael Lindsay GS ’06, an assistant professor of sociology at Rice University who completed his Ph.D. under Keller’s guidance. “She was a whole person who cared deeply about the people in her life.”

Keller traveled widely and spoke seven languages, displaying endless enthusiasm and curiosity. “She lamented that she couldn’t read or write Greek even though she could lecture in it. But she took care of that!” said sociology professor Charles Westoff, one of Keller’s closest friends.

Born Suzanne Infeld on April 16, 1927, in Vienna, Austria, Keller moved to New York City as a child. She earned her Ph.D. in sociology in 1953 from Columbia and served at various institutions, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brandeis and Vassar before joining Princeton.

Always proactive, Keller continued writing after her retirement and served as president of the World Society for Ekistics, the science of human settlements, from 2005 to 2007.

She is survived by her husband Charles Haar, an emeritus law professor at Harvard, and three stepchildren.

“She was larger than life,” Lindsay said.