George R. Klare

George R. Klare (Minneapolis, 1922 – The Plains, Ohio, 2006) was a World War II veteran and a distinguished professor of psychology and dean at Ohio University.

World War II

Klare served as a navigator on a B-17 Flying Fortresss in the Eighth Air Force in England. On December 31, 1944, he was shot down over Germany. He spent the rest of World War II in German POW camps. He was liberated by advancing Soviet troops from Stalag Luft One on May 1, 1945. He was honorably discharged as a First Lieutenant in December, 1945, receiving the Air Medal, the Purple Heart, European area ribbons and the Prisoner of War medal.

Klare later recounted his experiences as a prisoner of war in a chapter entitled "Questions" in Interrogations, Confessions, and Entrapment, published by Springer in 2004.

In 1978, he was named Distinguished Professor of Psychology. While at Ohio University, he served as chair of the Psychology Department from 1959 to 1963, as acting dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in 1965–66 and in 1984–85, and as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 1966 to 1971. He was also acting associate provost for graduate and research programs from 1986 until his retirement in 1987. in 1981, Klare was elected to the Reading Hall of Fame of the International Reading Association in 1997. He is listed in Who's Who in America.

Main works

His major contribution was in the field of readability. From the beginning of the 20th century, the assessment of the grade level of texts for different grades of readers was a central concern of reading research. It was well known that without correctly graded texts, readers would not improve their reading skill. There were over 1,000 published studies on this topic. Klare's contribution to that effort came both in his critical reviews of the studies and his participation in original research.

• Klare G.R. & Buck B. 1954. Know your reader: the scientific approach to readability. New York: Hermitage House.
• Klare G.R. 1963. The measurement of readability. Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press.
• Klare G.R. 1975. A manual for readable writing. Glen Burnie, MD.
• Klare G.R. 1984. Readability. In Handbook of Reading Research, (ed) P.D. Pearson. New York: Longman, pp. 681–744.
• Klare G.R. 1985. How to write readable English. London: Hutchinson.
• Klare G.R. and Klare R. 2012. The haunting memories of war: a memoir of father and son. Bloomington, Indiana: Lulu Press.