May Memorial Set For Eugene Kelley, Smeal Dean Emeritus

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (March 13, 2007) – Together with his family, the Smeal College of Business will host a memorial service in May for Eugene Kelley, dean emeritus of Smeal.

Family, friends, colleagues, and former students of Kelley's are invited to attend the service at 10 a.m. on May 17 in the Helen Eakin Eisenhower Chapel on Penn State's University Park campus. A reception will follow at noon in the Paquerilla Spiritual Center's Garden Room.

Kelley, Smeal's second dean and a pioneering scholar in the field of marketing management, passed away Feb. 10 at age 84.

Kelley joined Smeal in 1963 as a research professor of business administration, charged with expanding the college's graduate programs at the doctoral level. He was appointed as the college's second dean in 1973, and served in that position until his retirement from Penn State in 1988.

As dean, Kelley is credited with bringing to Smeal a modern approach to academic management. He placed emphasis on collegiality and consultation with faculty, and believed in the importance of applying entrepreneurial methods in his administration.

"Gene set the bar very high for future deans of Smeal and left a lasting impression on what we do here," said James Thomas, the college's current dean. "He began an untiring pursuit of excellence that guided the college to new heights during his 15 years as dean, and still continues today. Gene's legacy at Smeal is that continual journey to raise the college to greater and greater levels of distinction."

Kelley came to Smeal from New York University, where he served as associate dean of the Graduate School of Business Administration. Prior to that, he served on the faculties of Babson College, Clark University, Michigan State University, and the Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Born in New York City on July 8, 1922, Kelley earned his bachelor's degree at the University of Connecticut in 1945, after a brief interruption in his education for a stint in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He earned an M.Ed. and M.B.A. from Boston University in 1948 and 1949, respectively, and a Ph.D. in economics and marketing from New York University in 1955.

Kelley's influential work in the marketing field is credited with moving the focus of the discipline toward management and he is considered one of the driving forces behind the internationalization of marketing.

He was the author or co-author of numerous monographs, scholarly articles, and books, including Marketing: Strategy and Functions, which was translated into six languages.

He was co-editor of the 1958 book Managerial Marketing: Perspective and Viewpoints, one of the earliest textbooks on marketing management. Three editions of the book were published, each focusing on the major business transformations resulting from the application of new marketing concepts.

In 1959, Kelley co-authored Interdisciplinary Contributions to Marketing, a monograph that served as a precursor to the integration of behavioral and social disciplines with marketing and to the development of specialized marketing areas such as macromarketing and consumer behavior.

Kelley's 1973 book, Social Marketing: Perspectives and Viewpoints, was a definining volume on the discipline of social marketing and focused on the its important role in ethics, consumerism, quality of life, and environmental issues.

He served as president of the American Marketing Association from 1982 to 1983, and was editor of the Journal of Marketing from 1967 to 1972.

For four years, Kelley sat on the board of directors of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, and served as chairman of the organization's government relations, long-range planning, and organizational marketing committees.

He served as a consultant and adviser in management and marketing for several firms and universities in the United States and abroad. He served as chairman and regional director of Mellon Bank Central, and educational adviser to the International Council of Shopping Centers. He also served on the National Advisory Council of the Small Business Administration and as an adviser to the Japan Marketing Association.

In 1998, Kelley was inducted into the University of Connecticut School of Business Hall of Fame. Among his other honors is the Comptroller General's Award for Distinguished Service to the U.S. General Accounting Office.

Upon his retirement from Penn State, Kelley joined the faculty of Florida Atlantic University, where he served as distinguished professor of marketing, eminent scholar, and vice chairman of the Executive Advisory Board of the College of Business.

In 2003, he and his wife Linda moved from Florida, back to State College, where they could regularly be found welcoming guests to Smeal events and ceremonies.