SIU will honor Barbara Lesar, widow of dean

Barbara Lesar, a longtime supporter of the Southern Illinois University School of Law, will receive a Distinguished Service Award during the commencement ceremony on Thursday, May 7, in Shyrock Auditorium on the Carbondale campus.

The widow of the law school’s founding dean, Hiram H. Lesar, was nominated for the honor by its faculty. She celebrates her 90th birthday this month.

“She is a delight; she is energetic,” said retiring Dean Peter C. Alexander. “She is our number one supporter at the School of Law, and I suspect that other campus units can say the same thing about her.”

Alexander called Barbara Lesar “a tireless servant for so many departments on campus that I’m very pleased we will be able to honor her contributions at our commencement.”

The resolution recognizes her many years of contributions. She was married previously to Prof. Richard Thomas, and after his death to Hiram Lesar.

Dean of the law school from 1972 to 1980, Mr. Lesar died Aug. 4, 1997, at age 85. The law building is named in his honor, as is a distinguished lecture program.

“As Hiram Lesar’s widow, Mrs. Lesar has considered it her responsibility to make sure that his vision is supported every way possible,” Alexander wrote in the nomination letter. “She is an active member of our Board of Visitors and she attends every law school event that we hold.”

Barbara Lesar is co-chair of a law school fund-raising committee to endow a professorship in her late husband’s honor. She has also met with the university’s chancellor and president “in an effort to improve the Law School’s reporting relationship with the central administration.”

A past president and member of Friends of WSIU Advisory Board, Lesar has lobbied Congress on behalf of the station. She served on the Morris Library Board of Visitors from September 1997 to January 2006.