John Kelly

John J. Kelly (11 May 1935 – 12 November 2022 ) was a senior Irish academic. A professor of chemical engineering, he was for a period dean of the Faculty of Engineering at University College Dublin (UCD, where he was also registrar / deputy president). He was executive director of the Ireland Canada University Foundation, chairman of the Scholarship Board of the O'Reilly Foundation, and president of Independent College Dublin, and chairman of the board of trustees of the Friends of Bethlehem University in Ireland.

Early life John Kelly was born in Newry, Northern Ireland, 11 May 1935, the fourth of seven children of Rita Curran and John Vincent Kelly. He attended two local schools and St. Patrick's College in Armagh. He then attended a boarding school Castleknock College, on the outskirts of Dublin, from 1947 to 1953, where he became Head Prefect and captained a rugby team.

Publications Kelly has co-authored or authored more than a hundred technical and professional articles or book chapters, and two books.

He has also written letters and leader and education comment articles in the Irish Times, notably on the battle between Newman's "community of scholars" concept and vocationalism, academic pay, European student exchange and in latter times, on Palestine and Bethlehem University.

He has also been editor or joint editor of multiple journals.

Other roles Kelly led a European Community delegation to the Faculty of Engineering & Technology (FET) in the University of Jordan from 1981 to 1986, and chaired the team which assisted in the establishment of the HIAST, the Higher Institute of Advanced Science & Technology in Damascus, Syria in 1987.

In the late 1990s, he was invited to become a member of the Scholarship Board of the O'Reilly Foundation, a charitable trust established by billionaire media magnate Sir Anthony O'Reilly, and in 2001, he became the second chairman of that body.

He is a director of Feenish Films, and was a member of the board of CHC, the Canadian Helicopter Corporation, and of the board of the Ireland Newfoundland Partnership. He chaired the international group which advised the Government of Newfoundland & Labrador on its structures of higher education in 2006. He also chaired the Dispute Resolution Committee of National University of Ireland, Cork, and until 2012 the council of the Friends of Bethlehem University in Ireland. He has also been president of Independent College, Dublin, and Chairman of Element Fleet Technology Limited, the Irish branch of the Canadian company Element Fleet Management Corporation.

Personal life Kelly lives in Dublin, and in May 1968 married Nora Doyle; they have four children, three boys and one girl. He captained the Irish Water Skiing Team at the North European Championships in Amsterdam in 1965. In later years, Kelly was captain of the Supervets +70 tennis team at Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club in Dublin.

Kelly publicly criticised UCD for a planned failure to attend the canonisation of its founder in late 2019, and the university subsequently reversed its position.