Robert Michaelsen; Religious Studies Professor

Robert S. Michaelsen, 81, retired professor of religious studies and vice chancellor of UC Santa Barbara. A native of Iowa, Michaelsen served 11 years as director of the University of Iowa School of Religion before joining the Santa Barbara faculty in 1965 as chairman and professor of religious studies. He took various administrative roles over the years, and was vice chancellor of the campus under three different chancellors before his retirement in 1989. Once president of the American Academy of Religion and a respected scholar of religious studies, Michaelsen wrote four books, including “The American Search for Soul.” He and his wife, Florence, recently established an endowment to fund a visiting scholars program in religious studies. Michaelsen’s teaching career spanned controversial U.S. Supreme Court decisions that many felt would end teaching of religion in public universities. But Michaelsen insisted that higher educational institutions had always taught, not religion, but the role of religion in society and the history of religions. He said the rulings actually encouraged such a curriculum and made it more academically respectable. On Monday in Santa Barbara.