Jane G. Likert
Jane Gibson Likert died Nov. 29 at age 95 at her home in Hawaii. She and her husband, Rensis Likert, moved to Honolulu in 1969 after his retirement as director of the Institute for Social Research. Their ties to Ann Arbor and the University were many and strong, however, and continued throughout her life.
Jane Likert first came to the University as a student and graduated in 1925 with a B.A. and a teaching certificate in education. Shortly thereafter she married Rensis Likert, also a U-M graduate, and they moved to New York and later Washington, D.C. They returned to Ann Arbor in 1946 when Rensis Likert became the founding director of the Survey Research Center (Institute for Social Research).
Jane Likert was a founder of the Center for the Education of Women (1964) and a project director and counselor there in 1965–69.
In much of Rensis Likert’s influential writing on organizations, Jane Likert was an active and gratefully acknowledged collaborator. They co-authored New Ways of Managing Conflict (McGraw-Hill, 1976).
Beyond the University, Jane Likert’s organizational ability made her a leader in the League of Women Voters, both locally and nationally. She also served as chair of the board of Rensis Likert Associates, a survey and consulting group founded shortly af ter Rensis Likert’s retirement from the University in 1970. And in Hawaii, as in Ann Arbor, the Likert home was a place of welcome for friends as well as family.
Jane Likert is survived by her sister, Elizabeth Morrison Hunter of Hanover, N.H.; her daughter and son-in-law, Elizabeth and Martin David of Madison, Wis.; her daughter and son-in-law, Patricia and James Pohlman of Columbus, Ohio; six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Research Fund of the Center for the Education of Women or the charity of one’s choice. A memorial service will be held in Ann Arbor at a later date.
Submitted by the Institute for Social Research
