William Rea Keast, an English scholar who led Wayne State University during the troubled years 1965 to 1971, died Saturday, June 27, at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire.

University campuses were scenes of student unrest and protest during the late Sixties and early Seventies. The race riot in Detroit, the shootings at Kent State and Jackson State universities and the Vietnam War all combined to put a special mark on the era as the time of militant antiwar and black power movements.

"President Keast served Wayne State University during turbulent times on campus," said current President Irvin D. Reid, "and people have said to me that the relative calm on this campus was directly attributable to his ability to relate to the students of that day. He kept the university running, the education of students continued and, I am told, he even led them in some of the protest marches."

Born Nov. 1, 1914 in Malta, Ill., Dr. Keast was an authority on 18th Century English literature and taught at the University of Chicago and Cornell University. At Cornell for 14 years, he also was the English department chairman, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and vice president for academic affairs. He came to Wayne State as president July 1, 1965.

The Keast years were marked fully as much by growth as by the din of protest and revolt. Enrollment jumped from under 30,000 students to more than 35,000.General fund expenditures more than doubled from $34 million to almost $70 million. There was a building boom that included the Law School, Matthaei Physical Education complex, Physics Building and the Palmer Avenue Parking Structure.

The Center for Urban Studies was established, the Commission on the Status of Women formed and, in 1968, the university celebrated its Centennial.

Keast worked to fill a special role for public urban universities. In a speech to faculty and staff as he was preparing to leave Wayne State, he urged a continuing attack on what he saw as the three most difficult problems of our time -- the distortion of priorities in society, inequality of opportunity and race and racism.

"Wayne State University has come a long way," Dr. Keast said, "and I believe, in the right directions. Let us continue to be a non-traditional university, for these are non-traditional times. We must not falter now."

After leaving WSU, Keast joined the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, where he remained until retirement. He served as professor of English and chairman of the department, and director of Special Library Collections.

Dr. Keast's wife, Mary Alice, died in 1990. Survivors include three children, Sara, Stephen and Emily, as well as grandchildren.