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IU HPER Dean Tony Mobley announces retirement
June 27, 2001
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Tony A. Mobley, dean of the Indiana University School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation since 1976, has announced his retirement at the end of the next academic year on June 30, 2002.
Mobley, the senior administrator at IU in length of service as dean, said he is announcing his retirement now to provide ample time for the search process for his successor to be completed prior to his departure.
"At the end of next June, I will have served as dean for 26 years, and it is time for me to move into a new phase of life," he said in a memo to the HPER faculty and staff. "I am very proud of what all of us have accomplished for our school during these years, and it has been a real privilege to work with so many talented and outstanding people."
Kenneth R.R. Gros Louis, IU vice president for academic affairs and chancellor of the Bloomington campus, said, "As the senior dean on campus, Tony is the only major current officer I have not appointed. Frankly, I wish I had. Under his leadership, the School of HPER has made enormous strides in national visibility, research productivity and faculty hiring. The school is much different and a stronger academic unit than when he took it over 25 years ago, and much of the credit is his."
At the request of incoming IUB Chancellor Sharon Brehm, Gros Louis is gathering names for a search and screen committee which will begin working this fall to find a successor for Mobley.
As dean of HPER, Mobley heads a school with some 2,000 undergraduate and graduate students, 72 faculty members and 116 staff members. The school is comprised of the Department of Applied Health Science, Department of Kinesiology, Department of Recreation and Park Administration, and Division of Recreational Sports. Degrees are offered in 30 specialty areas at the bachelor's, master's, directorate and doctoral levels.
Mobley, 63, came to IU after previous administrative appointments as chairman of Recreation and Parks at The Pennsylvania State University and chairman of the Western Illinois University Department of Recreation and Park Administration. He has more than 30 years of university administrative experience in health, physical education and recreation and is known for helping form international exchange partnerships with other institutions of higher learning for the study of physical education, health, recreation and park administration. His academic expertise includes physical education, leisure, park administration and recreation.
Mobley holds a master's degree and doctorate from IU in recreation and park administration. He also has a bachelor's degree from Georgetown College and a master's degree from Southern Seminary.
He has been involved in numerous campus and civic activities during his years at IU. His professional activities have included president of the National Recreation and Park Association, president of the Society of Park and Recreation Educators, president of the National Institute for Fitness and Sport, president of the American Academy for Park and Recreation Administration, and president of the Association for Research, Administration, Professional Councils and Societies of the American Alliance of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. He received the National Distinguished Professional Award from NRPA and the Distinguished Fellow Award from SPRE.
He established a development office at HPER that received more than $250,000 in its first full-time year in 1995 and recently completed an $8 million academic endowment campaign that doubled the $4 million goal.
Mobley has published more than 60 articles in various state and national professional journals, co-authored a book and edited several monographs. He has served as a consultant and lecturer throughout the United States and in 28 foreign countries.
(Richard Doty, 812-855-0084, rgdoty@indiana.edu)