Professor Emeritus of English Richard Buckstead dies
Professor Emeritus of English Richard Buckstead, who taught American and Asian literature at St. Olaf College for nearly five decades before retiring in 2010, died on July 31.
A graduate of Yankton College, Buckstead earned his master’s degree from the University of South Dakota and his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa before joining the St. Olaf faculty in 1961.
Buckstead led a number of St. Olaf study-abroad programs and received several Fulbright awards, including one that enabled him to teach at Andalas University in Indonesia and another that took him to Thailand.
In the summer of 1965, at the height of the civil rights movement, Buckstead facilitated a life-changing opportunity for 65 St. Olaf students who participated in the Tuskegee Institute Summer Education Program. He served as an advisor for the program, which took college students to Alabama to teach reading, writing, music, and drama to African American teens living in rural areas.
Read more in Buckstead’s obituary.