Remembering Pioneering Scholar Jack Kelly
By LAURA PAYNE, MIKE RAYCRAFT, KIM SHINEW and MONIKA STODOLSKA
Jack Kelly, a professor in the Department of Leisure Studies at Illinois for many years, died on Feb. 10, 2025, at the age of 94. Faculty members of the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism collaborated to write this remembrance of Kelly.
Professor Emeritus Jack Kelly was a trailblazer in the field of Leisure Studies and was instrumental in establishing the field of Leisure Studies. Kelly anticipated many societal issues and trends in the 1970s and early 1980s that advanced knowledge of healthy aging, the study of work and leisure, socialization and leisure and family leisure.
“We as a field owe Jack a great deal,” said retired RST faculty member Kim Shinew, who joined Kelly at the University of Illinois in 1993. “He catapulted us forward by making our research more relevant, and he increased our visibility to others outside the field.” Dr. Kelly’s research laid the theoretical foundations of the field through seminal works such as Leisure; Sociology of Leisure; Freedom to Be: A New Sociology of Leisure; and Leisure Identities and Interactions.
Kelly was one of the first leisure scholars to recognize that research advances were not keeping pace with societal trends and issues. He pushed the field to address the sociological and psychological aspects of leisure, which offered important advancements in leisure research and contributed to the development of professional best practices. A dynamic teacher, Kelly emphasized the connections between research and professional practice.
“I was fortunate to be a student in Dr. Kelly’s final LEIS 501 course in the early 1990s,” said RST faculty member Michael Raycraft. “He made it clear that an appreciation of leisure theory was critical for practitioners as it guided informed decisions and was the basis for effective RST programming. That was heavy stuff for a kid fresh out of business school. I am grateful to have learned from one of the best!”
Kelly’s pioneering research and dynamic teaching are stellar accomplishments in their own rite, but even more impressive since higher education was his second career.
Kelly grew up in Chicago and studied philosophy at Monmouth College and then earned an M.A. in Theology from Yale University to pursue a career as a congregational minister. Newly married to his beloved wife Ruth, the couple moved to rural Montana where Kelly served in two parishes that were so far apart, he flew his Cessna airplane back and forth between church services. In the 1960s, he decided to change careers and earned both master’s and doctoral degrees in sociology from the University of Oregon.
Kelly spent most of his career at Illinois as a professor in the Department of Leisure Studies and the Institute for Human Development. He was also the Director of the Gerontology and Aging Studies program. “He enjoyed mentoring young faculty and encouraging them to conduct creative and meaningful research,” Shinew said. “Over coffee on campus or dinner at his home, Jack stressed the importance of research to advance the field.”
Faculty member Monika Stodolska remembers meeting Kelly when she joined the faculty in 1999. “He mentored me in the first course I taught at UIUC. Jack taught Theories and Concepts of Leisure for a long time, and I began teaching the course when he retired from our faculty. I still use some of the classic texts that Jack put on the reading list. His legacy lives on.”
After retiring, Kelly remained active doing research, teaching and publishing journal articles and books. He returned to Illinois in 2001 for one semester to teach a graduate course on Sociology of Leisure and connect with faculty and students.
Faculty member Laura Payne recalled her first meeting with Dr. Kelly when she joined the department in 2001.
“Jack was so welcoming and tried to connect with me,” Payne said. “We got together and discussed our shared interests in trends and issues, especially about health and aging, and I learned a lot from our thought-provoking conversations.”
A prolific writer, Kelly authored 11 books, many of which were considered seminal, including the classic conceptual and theoretical texts already mentioned, and widely read books such as Leisure, Activity and Aging, Recreation Business, and Recreation Trends and Markets in the 21st Century, whom he co-authored with Dr. Rodney Warnick, a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts.
Kelly had a wide range of leisure interests. He enjoyed the arts, tennis, singing, reading, flying and the outdoors. After he retired, he and Ruth spent time at their homes on Beaver Island, Michigan and on Jekyll Island, Georgia where they enjoyed bicycling, tennis and other outdoor pursuits.
“Jack’s life exemplified his knowledge of the importance of leisure throughout the lifespan. He practiced what he preached,” Shinew said.