On the third floor of Twamley Hall is a series of plaques detailing the careers of all the presidents of UND. At the end of the row is the plaque for Robert Kelley, the only one that doesn’t feature an end date.

However, that will all change in January when Kelley retires and a new plaque will be hung. Kelley started his time as president in 2008 after the retirement of Charles Kupchella.

Kelley was chosen for the position at the age of 63, and began working at 64.

“At some point I had thought that my job at the University of Wyoming might be my last job,” Kelley said. “I was in my early fifties when I took that job, and I thought that, ‘Oh this would be a great to retire, I love the out of doors, I like skiing, fly fishing and hunting.’ I thought Wyoming was as good as it gets.”

When a new opportunity came, however, Kelley decided to take it.

“When the opportunity came to come up and conclude a career as a president, it was at UND where I had some longstanding acquaintances over in the med school, I just thought ‘I’ll take advantage of that opportunity, I’ll look forward to it.’ And I knew when I took the job that it would be my last.”

During his tenure here, Kelley has emphasized the importance of building new facilities and making the connections with the community that make those facilities better.

“A good example is with our local health systems at Altru,” Kelley said. “Altru developed ties with the Mayo Clinic. Some of our medical students had their clinical training through Altru, and are now associated with one other major health system in our region and another major medical school, the Mayo Medical School.”

However, these deals do not always work out as planned.

Alex Bertsch is the editor-in-chief for The Dakota student. He can be reached at [email protected]