In Memoriam: Barbara Uehling Charlton, 1932-2020

Barbara Uehling Charlton, the former chancellor of the University of Missouri and the former chancellor of the University of California, Santa Barbara, died on January 2 at St. Paul’s Senior Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in San Diego, California. She was 87 years old and had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Charlton was the first and only woman to serve as the permanent chancellor of either university.

A native of Wichita, Kansas, Dr. Charlton held a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Wichita State University. She went on to earn a Ph.D. in experimental psychology at Northwestern University in Illinois.

Dr. Charlton served as chancellor of the University of Missouri from 1978 to 1987. She then was chancellor of the University of California, Santa Barbara from 1987 to 1994.

Earlier in her career, Dr. Charlton was an educator and researcher at Oglethorpe and Emory universities in Atlanta, the dean of Roger Williams College in Bristol, Rhode Island, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Illinois State University, and provost at the University of Oklahoma.