Helen Astin, a longtime professor of higher education at the University of California, Los Angeles, died late last month at her home in Brentwood, California. She was 83 years old.
A native of Greece, Professor Astin grew up during the Nazi occupation of her homeland. She came to the United States at the age of 19 and earned a bachelor’s degree at Adelphi University in Garden City, New York. She went on to earn a master’s degree at Ohio University and a doctorate at the University of Maryland, where she was the second woman to receive a Ph.D. in psychology.
Professor Astin was the co-author of Women of Influence, Women of Vision: A Cross-Generational Study of Leaders and Social Change (John Wiley & Sons, 1999) and Cultivating the Spirit: How College Can Enhance Students’ Inner Lives (Jossey-Bass, 2010).
Dr. Astin spent 29 years on the faculty at UCLA. She retired from teaching in 2002.