Richard Allen Lester (1908-1997) served as Princeton’s ninth dean of the faculty from 1968 to 1973. Lester was a preeminent American economic scholar during the mid-20th century and a catalyst in the growth of the Princeton economics department.

Lester earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University in 1929 and a doctorate in economics from Princeton in 1936. Upon earning his doctorate, he briefly served as an instructor at Princeton before becoming an assistant labor law professor at the University of Washington in 1938. In 1940, he joined the Duke University faculty as an assistant and then associate professor of economics.

During his time at Duke, at the height of World War II, Lester concurrently served in the labor division of the United States War Production Board, on the War Manpower Commission and in the Office of the Secretary of War.

In the fall of 1945, he returned to Princeton as an associate professor of economics. He rose to full professor in 1948 and served multiple terms as chairman of the economics department.

Lester was a research associate at Princeton’s Industrial Relations Section, and his work in the mid-20th century helped establish the University as a leading center in labor economics. In addition to his work in the economics department, he served in many different roles at the University and in the public sector.

Lester was a founder of the Industrial Relations Research Association in 1948 and served as its president in 1956. He was elected vice president of the American Economic Association in 1961 and was a trustee of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association from 1959 to 1963.

Lester was elected to the Princeton Borough Council in 1957 and served as its president in 1960. From 1962 to 1964, he was president of the Association of Princeton Graduate Alumni. He also served on the editorial board and as vice president of the Princeton University Press.

In 1966, Lester was appointed as associate dean and director of the graduate program at the Princeton School for Public and International Affairs, laying the foundation for his appointment as dean of the faculty in 1968.

As dean of the faculty, Lester developed and administered recruitment efforts to broadly attract outstanding teachers and scholars to the Princeton faculty. He also chaired a University-wide equal employment opportunity committee.

Written by Shane B. Black for the Office of the Dean of the Faculty.