Grand Forks Herald: President Kelley will be missed UND Athletic Department

From reading Facebook and Twitter yesterday, there are a lot of UND Alumni, students and fans that are happy about President Robert O. Kelley's retirement in January. Personally, I don't know the man. I wasn't a student when he was the UND president. I was out of school before Kelley became UND's 11th president.  Sounds like the Athletic Department is going to miss Kelley.

Brad Schlossman, Grand Forks Herald -- Faison said that Kelley will be missed by his office.

“He was a great force for athletics,” Faison said. “He was very instrumental in making the transition to Division I. He has always been incredibly supportive of our student athletes. He and (his wife) Marcia were tremendous ambassadors for our programs, supporting our student athletes. It’s very unusual, in most instances, to have a president willing to spend that kind of personal time with them. That’s something we were very appreciative of.”

Faison also said that Kelley was instrumental in fundraising for the school and getting the High Performance Center launched.

“He is one of the reasons why the High Performance Center will get done,” Faison said. “I was just on a tour of it today with a group and he was there. He’s very involved and supportive.”