Kester Svendsen

James Kester Olaf Svendsen (May 25, 1912 – October 5, 1968) was an American educator, scholar, author, and chess administrator.

In 1952 Svendsen was awarded a fellowship in English literature by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

After earning a PhD in English from the University of North Carolina he began what was a short tenure at the College of Charleston.

[2] While at the University of Oregon, beginning in 1959, he was tasked with building the new English Department from the ground up, even though he had no experience in this type of endeavor.

One colleague there said, "What Oregon got, then, was an individualist not of the common mold, one who for a long time had been free of cant, hypocrisy, and pretentiousness of every kind, a fine scholar and great teacher, but an unknown quantity as an administrator.

He offended a few self-important people with his deflating wit; he intrigued multitudes with his caustic observations concerning academic smog.

"[3] Roland Bartel, who headed the English Department at Oregon from 1968 until 1976 reminisced about Svendsen in an interview in 2004, saying, "Well, he was very charismatic.