AKRON (March 8)—Frank N. Kelley will retire this fall as the dean of the University of Akron's College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering.
The school has hired a search consultant and has a search committee to hire Kelley's successor nearly finalized, according to an announcement by Elizabeth J. Stroble, the university's senior vice president provost.
"I want to thank Dean Kelley for his many years of dedicated effort and visionary leadership here as the chief administrator of the largest polymer program in the United States," Stroble said.
Kelley earned three degrees from the university, culminating with a doctorate in polymer chemistry in 1961. He then entered the Air Force, where he was assigned to the Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory.
He remained with the Air Force in civilian status before returning to the university in 1978 as director of the Institute of Polymer Science. He has been dean of the Polymer Science College since its inception in 1988.