John V. Lombardi

John Vincent Paul Maher Lombardi (born August 19, 1942) is an American professor and former university administrator. He is a native of California, and earned his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees before becoming a professor of Latin American history. Lombardi has served as the president of the University of Florida, the chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and the president of the Louisiana State University System.

Early life and education

Lombardi was born into a family of educators in Los Angeles, California in 1942. His mother worked as a college librarian.

Lombardi married the former Cathryn L. Lee in 1964, whom he met while they were attending Pomona College. They have two children: son John Lee Lombardi and daughter Mary Ann Lombardi.

Early academic appointments

Lombardi taught in the history department at Indiana University, first at the Jeffersonville, Indiana branch campus and then at the main campus in Bloomington, Indiana, from 1967 through 1987. At Indiana, he held various administrative posts, including director of Latin American studies, dean of international programs, and dean of arts and sciences. As the provost of Johns Hopkins, Lombardi played a key role in fund-raising and in resolving a financial crisis in which the university was then embroiled. In addition to Latin American history classes, he has taught courses on intercollegiate sports, international business and university management. He was barely settled in his job at the beginning of the fall 1990 semester when Lombardi was confronted by one of the most serious crises in the university's history—the horrific murders of five students by serial killer Danny Rolling. He is remembered as both comforter-in-chief and as a "student's president" during his term as president. As part of his athletics reform agenda, Lombardi created the Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics, which ultimately removed responsibility for student-athlete academics from the control of the University Athletic Association (UAA) and placed it under the control of the committee. Lombardi actively reinserted the office of the president in the UAA's chain of decision-making; the president retained final authority over all major decisions. He implemented further institutional controls intended to promote the welfare and academic achievement of student-athletes and continued compliance with the rules of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). now recognized as one of the most successful athletic directors in NCAA Division I sports. His relationships with the Florida Board of Regents and the Florida Legislature were characterized by a series of ups and downs, confrontation followed by conciliation, usually involving conflicts over declining state financial support and conflicting state education funding priorities of the legislature. Lombardi resigned as president in 1999, but continued to teach as a member of the history faculty until 2002.

Lombardi's enthusiasm for classic cars led him and a friend to operate Farmer's Garage, a specialty shop for older model automobiles.

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Lombardi served as the chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Amherst from 2002 to 2007.

Louisiana State University System

As president of the LSU System, Lombardi served as the chief executive officer of the five campuses, eleven institutions and ten hospitals within the system. He presided over the groundbreaking of the University Medical Center in New Orleans. He also held an appointment as a history professor at Louisiana State University.

Author Lombardi began working with computers in 1967. A member of InfoWorlds review board, he wrote articles on information technology during his academic and administrative career, such as a review of WordPerfect for NeXTSTEP.