Heindel, Richard Heathcote, 1912-

Dr. Richard Heindel, first Dean of Faculty at Penn State's Capitol Campus (1967-1973), served as professor of International Relations from 1967 to 1977. After graduating from high school in Hanover, New York, he attended Gettysburg College in Michigan. He later transferred to Harvard, receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1933, and started his graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1934, he received his Master of Arts degree and continued on for his doctorate. As a graduate student he taught at the Drexel Institute of Technology as a Social Science Research Fellow. In 1938 he received his Ph.D in History from the University of Pennsylvania. As an American observer in London during the war, he established and directed the American Library in the American Embassy. While there, he wrote a book entitled, The American Impact on Britain. After the war he returned to the University of Pennsylvania, serving as an assistant professor of European history until 1946. He was a member of the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1947 to 1949, and Deputy Director of UNESCO from 1950 to 1954, serving as a delegate to the UNESCO General Conference at Paris in 1951. In 1957 Wagner College conferred upon him an honorary Litt.D. for his work on behalf of American libraries and books overseas. His professional and scholarly activities included service as an overseas correspondent of the American Council of Learned Societies, The Commission on Foreign Languages of the United States Office of Education, Fellow of the Library of Congress, a member of The Commission on Interchange of Persons of the conference board of Association Research Councils, and a member of the Commission on International Education of the American Council of Education. Dr. Heindel was a Trustee of the Society for the Advancement of Education. Dr. Heindel was president of Wagner College and Pratt Institute before coming to Penn State in 1967. While in the New York area he was also a director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Brooklyn Association, and a member of the advisory committee of the Chase Manhattan Bank and the Kings County Hospital. Dr. Heindel was one of the founding administrators and faculty members of the Capitol Campus. In 1977 he retired from Penn State and was named Professor Emeritus of International Relations. He then served as Vice-Chancellor at the University of Buffalo until his death on July 31, 1979.

Heindel was the first Dean of Faculty at Pennsylvania State University's Capitol Campus, 1967-1973, and professor of international relations, 1967-1977. He then served as Vice-Chancellor at the University of Buffalo until his death on 31 July 1979.