Bill Kelly, associate professor of political science at Auburn University, died Monday after 48 years with the department.
The lights in Room 7004 of Auburn University’s Haley Center were always guaranteed to be on for political science students who needed help on weeknights and even weekends. The office was the second home of a man some called the “Mayor of the Haley Center” who knew much about retirement plans yet worked in higher education until the very end.
Bill Kelly, associate professor in the university’s Department of Political Science, was a staple of the department for nearly 50 years, and taught many generations of students. Kelly died Monday at age 79, and his colleagues and students say he will be sorely missed.
Kelly was known to many as a workaholic, although his research and instruction were among his few passions in life. Paul Harris, professor and chair of the Department of Political Science, said his colleague was the most dedicated faculty member he knew at Auburn.
“He is actually the only professor I’ve known to hold office hours on the weekend,” Harris said. “Teaching at Auburn University was his life.”
Hope Guffey, a current political science student at Auburn, called the late professor “more than a mentor” and said he persuaded her into getting a doctorate degree before entering law school.
Kelly was born Dec. 30, 1941, in Vermont and was a graduate student at Saint Michael’s College in Burlington, Vt., according to Clifton Perry, an Auburn political science professor and one of Kelly’s colleagues. He earned a doctorate from the University of Nebraska and did further graduate work at New Mexico State University before joining Auburn University in fall 1973, Perry said.
