Engineering Memory of the Month

The fifth dean

If the chair behind the dean’s desk is the hot seat, then no one was more appropriate to sit there than William Kays. A mechanical engineering professor, Kays was an expert in heat exchangers and heat transfer. He transferred into the role of Stanford Engineering’s fifth dean in 1972 when predecessor Joseph Petit left Stanford to become the president of Georgia Tech.

Kays had been chairman of the mechanical engineering department for 11 years and had in that time raised the department to the top status it still enjoys today. Kays is shown here at an ME department party celebrating his appointment as dean. The photo was taken by then ME graduate student Jim Healzer.

As dean from 1972 to 1984, Kays oversaw the creation of important new research centers such as the Blume Earthquake Engineering Center and the Center for Integrated Systems. All five of the school’s departments were ranked in the top five in the nation and the number of female students increased markedly.

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