CNU chooses next president, Coast Guard Academy chief

U.S. Coast Guard Academy Superintendent Rear Adm. William G. Kelly will become Christopher Newport University’s sixth president on July 1, the Newport News-based public liberal arts school announced Thursday.

CNU Chief of Staff Adelia P. Thompson has been serving as interim president since former President Paul S. Trible Jr.’s retirement at the end of the 2021-22 academic year, announced in fall 2021. Trible, who was CNU’s president for 26 years, now serves as the university’s chancellor, a post he said he would hold for the 2022-23 academic year during his retirement announcement. Trible oversaw more than $1 billion in capital construction at CNU, including more than 40 construction projects, and the campus grew from 100 acres to 260 acres.

Kelly, who will retire this year from the military after 36 years, became the Coast Guard Academy’s superintendent in 2019 and has been responsible for the education, development and commissioning of Coast Guard officers. A 1987 graduate of the academy, he has a master’s degree in instructional systems design and a certificate in human resource management from Florida State University.

“Christopher Newport values scholarship, leadership, compassion, service, community — these same core values have guided me throughout my life and are closely aligned with the academy I currently have the privilege of leading,” Kelly said in a statement.

He was previously an assistant commandant for human resources in Washington, D.C. In that role, Kelly was responsible for carrying out the Coast Guard’s diversity and inclusion strategic plan, which included implementing the service’s first Affinity Group Council and overseeing its first study of women’s retention issues in more than 25 years.

Kelly has served as the commanding officer of the Coast Guard Training Center in Cape May, New Jersey, the director of the Coast Guard’s Leadership Development Center and the school chief for Officer Candidate School. He also has served as an adjunct professor at Florida State University.

Including two command tours on board USCGC Seneca and USCGC Monomoy, Kelly has more than 10 years of service at sea. As executive officer in USCGC Spencer, he led the crew for deployment with the Navy’s Sixth Fleet in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

He also has chaired the Coast Guard Academy Board of Trustees and been president of the Coast Guard Mutual Assistance Board and the Coast Guard Nonpay Compensation Board. His major awards include the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Coast Guard Commendation Medal, the Coast Guard Achievement Medal and the permanent Cutterman’s pin.

The CNU Board of Visitors unanimously appointed Kelly, according to the school’s announcement. He and his wife, Angie Kelly, moved 15 times during his Coast Guard service, and they spent three years in Newport News and six in Northern Virginia. They have two sons and a grandson.

“[Kelly’s] life of public service embodies the principles of leadership, honor and service that define the Christopher Newport experience, and I am confident that CNU’s best days lie ahead,” Trible said in a statement.