PHOTO COURTESY OF AIKO ODO Ann Keppel, who played a big role in launching women's centers at the University of Hawaii-Manoa and UH-Hilo, died Tuesday.

Her leadership helped
women’s education

Ann keppel / UH women's studies advocate

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By Treena Shapiro
tshapiro@starbulletin.com

Having come of age at a time when women's educational and professional possibilities were limited, Ann Keppel worked hard toward equity and opportunities in education for women.

In 1987 she became director of the women's studies program at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, protecting a program that was targeted for elimination and breathing new life into the curriculum.

Four years later, she launched a campaign that resulted in women's centers at UH's Manoa and Hilo campuses.

Keppel, of Honolulu, died Tuesday of a heart attack. She was 78.

Ralph Stueber, who met Keppel in 1957 while they were both in graduate school at the University of Wisconsin, described his friend and colleague as "an educator from top to bottom."

"She came from a little rural hamlet in Wisconsin and apparently liked school," he said. She began her career as a high school history teacher, but specialized in the history of education in graduate school and brought her expertise to the university level. "She went beyond public school teaching, but in a way she never left it," Stueber said.

Stueber said Keppel joined him on the UH-Manoa educational foundation faculty in 1965.

Women's studies professor Meda Chesney-Lind was a graduate student when she met Keppel through the anti-Vietnam War movement at the university. They became close friends when they both joined the women's studies department, and worked together on many projects affecting girls and women, Chesney-Lind said.

"She was the person who thought we needed a women's center on campus and did the hard pick-and-shovel work in making that happen," she said.

"Ann was the queen of social networking," Chesney-Lind said. "She was the original grande dame. She really knew how to stay in touch with people and how to nourish people and friendships."

She was also close to her family on the mainland, Chesney-Lind said. Keppel is survived by sister Elizabeth Tracey; nephews Robert, James and Steven; and nieces Mary Sargeant, Jane Quall and Anne Sawyer. Services are pending.