Barbara Keats, a long-time professor at the business school, passed away early Wednesday from a sudden bacterial infection.
Keats recently began her twenty-fifth school year at ASU’s W. P. Carey School of Business teaching a course on responsible management, said Gerry Keim, management department chair.
Keats’ legacy as both a colleague and a friend will not soon be forgotten, Keim added.
“We are certainly going to miss Barbara,” Keim said.
The department has asked management professor Dale Kalika to take over Keats’ classes this semester. Kalika will take over by the end of the week, Keim said.
Keim and Kalika both said Keats showed no signs of illness before she canceled her classes Tuesday.
Keats was taken to the hospital Tuesday afternoon and passed away the following morning, Kalika said.
“This all happened in less than 24 hours,” she said.
Kalika said she was one of Keats’ close friends and was greatly affected by her sudden death. She officially accepted the position Friday and has been planning ever since.
“I cannot tell you how much she meant to me and other people,” Kalika said. “You will find that in your life you have family, you’re going to have a lot of acquaintances and you will have very few friends. I felt very blessed ... that I had her as a friend for almost a decade.”
Keats was also an associate department chair in management, and her sudden death has left the management department with many holes to fill, Keim said.
“I think we are going to be in good shape there, in terms of coverage of the courses,” Keim said.
Keats was also a leader in the school’s undergraduate program initiatives. Keim is currently in the process of filling that position and says he will have it filled by this week.
Kalika worked alongside fellow professor Jim Hershauer, who will be helping facilitate the management class during the transition and help students affected by Keats’ death.
“Jim and I spent hours talking on the phone about how we were going to transition into next week, taking [into] account the students,” she said. “We recognize that some students were already shocked. You don’t know what to do; your teacher just died. You’re in this class [and] you have no idea if the syllabus is going to be the same or not.”
Kalika said she previously taught the management class, MGT 410, last spring.
The upper-level class is required for all management students, she said.
The “Responsible Management” course, MGT 410, includes information about nonprofit organizations and focuses heavily on community service. Keats was very passionate about her job and especially community service, Kalika said.
Some of Keats’ students realized and appreciated her passion for community service. Management junior Brooke Christy was one of the students Keats influenced.
Christy was only in Keats’ class for the first few weeks of the semester but was already inspired by her teachings.
“I think what made Dr. Keats so inspirational was how passionate she was about volunteering,” Christy said in an e-mail.
Keats was very passionate about her lessons on nonprofit organizations. She loved organizations that provided help to people with diseases, animals and children, Christy said.
“She made me want to feel that passionate about helping others,” she said.
Reach the reporter at cottens@asu.edu
