The College of Health Sciences recently extended a warm Bronco welcome home to an alum who’s never strayed that far from Boise State — even after decades away from Boise.
George Kelley has been named a research professor associated with the School of Public and Population Health and the Department of Kinesiology — the latter from which he received his bachelor’s degree in 1980.
His love for Boise, the university, teaching, conducting research, and giving back, all have combined to bring him back into Boise State classes in entirely new ways.
Kelley spent the past 22 years as a professor in what is now the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at West Virginia University. He intends to build on his academic work and research conducted there and in a variety of other settings over the years, teaching graduate-level courses (Years ago, he told CNN that “I study studies to make sense out of nonsense.” For more on his background, visit his bio page).
Honoring Those Who Came Before Him
The teaching is only a piece of the puzzle, however. For Kelley, Boise State has been a career-long commitment. He founded and has been a long time donor to the Dr. Sherman Button Memorial Scholarship for Kinesiology. Button, an Idaho native who retired from Boise State in 2001 after a 25-year career at the university and died in 2012, was a mentor and role model for Kelley, who wanted to keep his name alive as an inspiration to others.
“He was very instrumental in my development as a person,” Kelley said, adding that former students, himself among them, came from across the country to pay their respects at Button’s funeral.
Thanks to the endowed scholarship, Button’s impact on students will continue in perpetuity — providing scholarship awards to Kinesiology students. As a Boise State student, Kelley was the beneficiary of others’ generosity, and knows what a difference it can make.
“I did not have a lot of money when I was a student here,” he said, noting that an advisor helped him to secure a scholarship when he was an undergrad. In setting up the scholarship and giving regularly, he said, “I wanted to see good students supported, future students supported.”
The Boise State Way
Leading by example, through charitable giving to his alma mater and through exacting, important research that students can take part in and be inspired by, is a priority to Kelley, one that aligns with the interests of both the university and the college.
In her State of the University address preceding the fall term, Boise State President Marlene Tromp noted two new records: $91 million in research funding, shattering the research record of $68 million set last year, and $58.5 million in philanthropic support, surpassing last year’s record $56.5 million.
The university launched the Unbridled Campaign in fall 2023 and Kelley plans to be in the thick of it. Among his projects will be guiding and mentoring staff and faculty members who are seeking out grants, particularly National Institutes of Health grants, for research and other critical academic work. Boise State and other institutions thrive only when there is support across the board, from other organizations and from private individuals who can help fund research projects, student scholarships, campus facilities, academic programs, faculty endeavors and more.
“I’m hoping to contribute to enhancing research,” Kelley said, noting that grants and similar support “allows one to do high-quality research.
“I think the research piece is critical, and I think the resources have to be there.”
Paving a Path for Future Generations
Top-tier research is crucial, Kelley believes, given how flooded students and consumers are with digital messages that serve up some dubious concepts. When students have the opportunity to plunge into assessing the truth for themselves — facts, rather than notions — they can help to build up knowledge for society and students to come. And when Boise State, fueled by generous donors, makes relevant, exciting research opportunities available, silos between disciplines are broken down and the quality of education is lifted up.
“Students need to hear the truth based on research, not misinformation, and the strongest information we have is peer-reviewed research,” he said. “Higher education is supposed to be about searching for the truth.”
All of which is why he’s back home at Boise State. He and his wife, with whom he has worked with for decades and who also is associated with the college, bought a house in Boise two years ago, but have been returning from West Virginia for many summers.
“This is what we had planned on doing,” he said. “I have a personal, emotional commitment to Boise State.
“I wanted to finish out my career where I consider I started, and that’s Boise State.”