Robert L. Chartrand

Robert Lee Chartrand (March 6, 1928 – December 26, 2010) was an information management professional, author, and public speaker. He received the ASIST Award of Merit in 1985.

Life

Chartrand was born on March 6, 1928, in Kansas City, Missouri. He received a M.A. in history and government from the University of Missouri at Kansas City before performing doctoral work at Louisiana State University.

His first marriage, to Betty Ruth Bogue, ended in divorce in 1967. They had two children, K.C. Chartrand and Leslie Chartrand-Selman. Mr. Chartrand was married for 41 years to the former Eleanor Salmon Hodges, who passed away in 2008. They were local tennis champions and activists in various public service organizations.[1]

Contributions

As a US Naval Intelligence Officer and veteran of the Korean War, Chartrand served as a briefer and photo interpreter. After working for the Central Intelligence Agency, he entered the computer industry. Chartrand held positions with TRW, IBM, and PRC before working with the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress. Notably, Chartrand acted as a specialist in information sciences while working for the Science Policy Research Division of the Congressional Research Service and authored a number of early reports and publications on computers and information technology, especially in regard to their use in government. He served on the Awards Committee of the Interagency Committee on Automatic Data Processing, which recognized government employees who made significant contributions to information science.

Publications

• Chartrand, Robert L. (1970). "Computer Technology and the Congress." Information Storage and Retrieval 6 (2): 229-240. https://doi.org/10.1016/0020-0271(70)90063-X
• Robert L. Chartrand (1972). Computers and Political Campaigning. New York, Spartan Books.
• U.S. Congress, House Select Committee on Committees & Chartrand, R. L. (1973). The Legislator as information user. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.
• U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment (R.L. Chartrand, member). (October 1988). Informing the Nation: Federal Information Dissemination in an Electronic Age, OTA-C IT-396. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.[2]
• Chartrand, R. L. (1992). Dreams and realities: The international dimension of the 1991 White House conference on library and information services. The Information Society 8 (2): 61–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.1992.9960105

Awards

• ASIST Award of Merit, 1985
• University of Missouri-Kansas City Alumni Award, 1984

Further Reading

• "Robert L. Chartrand". Wikipedia. 2026.[3]
• "Award of Merit Recipients". ASIST.org. 2025.[4]
• "Robert L. Chartrand (obituary)". The Washington Post. 2011-01-02.[5]
• "Robert L. Chartrand speaking with Richard Bolling (photo)". In Richard W. Bolling Collection. 1972-06-23.[6]