Rob Kling's obit

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: "David S. Wise" <dswise () cs indiana edu>
   
http://www.hoosiertimes.com/stories/2003/05/17/news.0517-HT-A2_CCP09098.sto

IU's professor Kling dead at 58

Herald-Times Report

Rob Kling, professor of information systems and information science at the
School of Library and Information Science and adjunct professor of computer
science at Indiana University, died unexpectedly Thursday morning. He was
58. 

Blaise Cronin, dean of the IU School of Library and Information Science,
praised Kling's accomplishments on the school's Web site, calling them
"legion and well documented."

"He was quite simply the brightest bloke with whom I have had the pleasure
of working. Infectiously curious, playfully serious, razor sharp, generous
of spirit, and wonderfully open-minded," Cronin said.

A prolific writer, Kling was described by colleague Alan Dennis, of IU's
Kelley School of Business, as "an icon in our field having spent time at the
Stanford Research Institute, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, UC Irvine
and most recently here at Indiana University."

Kling directed an interdisciplinary research center at IU, the Center for
Social Informatics. He served as the editor-in-chief of The Information
Society, a scholarly and mainstream publication for the information
technology profession.

He also served on the editorial and advisory boards of several scholarly and
professional journals, including European Journal of CSCW, Information
Technology and People, Social Science Computer Review and Accounting,
Management and Information Technology.

Kling directed the SLIS Master of Information Science degree program, and
oversaw program planning and student recruitment.

"Dynamic enthusiasm is insufficient to describe how Rob approached
everything in life," said Debora Shaw, associate dean at the school. "His
analysis and insight transformed the trivial to significant, providing,
among other benefits, the foundation for the field of social informatics.
Rob's friends, colleagues and students have been stunned by our loss of a
guide whose ideas challenged and encouraged us to accomplish more than we
thought we could."

Kling's research interests included study of social informatics, which
investigates aspects of computerization -- the roles of information
technology in social and organizational change and the ways that the social
organization of IT is influenced by social forces and social practices.
Kling studied how intensive computerization transforms work practices and
how computerization entails many social choices.

Kling's research has been published in over 85 journal articles and book
chapters. He presented numerous conference papers, gave invited lectures at
many major universities and the National Academy of Sciences, and presented
keynote and plenary talks at conferences in the United States, Canada and
Western Europe. 

In 2001, he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science. In 1987, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in
social sciences by the Free University of Brussels.

Kling was born in August 1944 and grew up in northern New Jersey. He
completed his undergraduate studies at Columbia University in 1965 and his
graduate studies, specializing in artificial intelligence, at Stanford
University in 1967 and 1971.

In 1996, he came to Bloomington as professor of information systems and
information science.

The family has established a SLIS scholarship at the IU Foundation in his
memory: the Rob Kling Social Informatics Scholarship Fund.

Kling is survived by his wife, Mitzi Lewison of Bloomington, and his sister
Ellasara Kling of New York City. Friends and colleagues are welcome to call
at the family home over the next week.

The family is planning a celebration of life for a future date. The SLIS is
planning a memorial event for early fall. 

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