Fell Leaves Tremendous Impact as Economic Development Partner and Leader of the Community
As interviews, tributes, and farewell events lead to Dr. Katherine Fell’s retirement as president of the University of Findlay on June 30, a theme – one of connection – emerges. It is that connective talent, paired with an unwavering commitment to all facets of the Findlay community, where Fell’s legacy truly shines. Her accomplishments are many, outnumbered only by her admirers.
University of Findlay President Katherine Fell, Ph.D, will retire at the end of June.
In the community, she was a founding member of the Marathon Center for the Performing Arts and established close ties with business and government, while strengthening community relations. She was an essential player, working with Findlay-Hancock County Economic Development and the City of Findlay, in maintaining and evolving a crucial piece of Findlay’s character – Findlay’s 41-year friendship with Japan, both the country itself and our Japanese friends who have made Findlay their home.
FHCED celebrates Dr. Fell – UF’s 17th and first female president – as she retires after 16 years – a pillar of the community whose exceptional ability to connect strengthened not only the University of Findlay – but Findlay – into what we know today.
Following Joy
Fell is from Stamps, Ark. – a town of about 1,100 people. She always loved reading and writing, was close with her home economics teacher, and lived right next door to her English teacher. She was the first person in her family to go to college – and she kept going to college.
Fell earned a Bachelor of Science in Education in English with a minor in Speech from Southern Arkansas University; a Master of Arts in English from Louisiana Technical University; and completed a Ph.D. in English from Texas A&M University.
“My mother always assumed I would go to college,” Fell said. “She was very much for education and worked hard all of her life. I felt the opportunity to go was a gift. People sacrificed so I could go to school, and I felt it was an opportunity I should not waste.”
Dr. Fell and her husband, Roger, wave to students from the back of a golf cart during Homecoming.
“Everyone has people they love and care for; many have children and grandchildren. It’s the most demanding and most rewarding position to be in,” Fell said. “Even when you’re exhausted, even when you’re exasperated, there’s always something else that still needs to be taken care of. …bringing up our six children was great preparation for so much joy and so much demand.”
Prior to her time at UF, Fell held several roles at Centenary College in Shreveport, La. She began her tenure in 1986 as an English professor for 14 years, when she taught and was published in the fields of literature, writing and pedagogy. She led the augmentation of an interdisciplinary major in communication, which grew to become one of the college’s strongest majors. Fell next became chief development officer, then vice president for advancement at Centenary.
She was drawn to apply for the president’s role at the UF in part because the City of Findlay and the Church of God General Conference came together to found the university in1882. She appreciated the tie between the city and university, and that its origin was in the Christian faith. UF continues that tradition while welcoming all people to attend.
In Findlay, she saw joy – and that joy remained throughout.
“I saw that this is a place loved by the community that encircles it, loved by the dedicated faculty and staff who work here, and the trustees,” Fell remembered. “Really the community around it has expanded beyond Findlay and Hancock County to other countries, all around the world. I was impressed by that, and by the mission to equip students for meaningful lives and productive careers. There was a joy that showed up in my interview and in my first days here. I saw a calling that gets the good people here out of bed in the morning and keeps them up late at night. I felt honored to be invited to join this team of leaders and scholars, and I also felt a tremendous amount of responsibility.”
Dynamic Leadership
Fell expected rigorous workdays as a university president, and in her first three months of 2010 that is exactly what she got. University leaders had determined it was time to begin a public fund-raising campaign, and she was to step right in, set a goal, plan, and announce it then. Her inauguration was held, and then a few days later, she and Roger were off with Dr. Hiro Kawamura on a trip to Japan.
“Dr. Fell very quickly understood the historical background and significance of our relationship between Findlay and Japan,” said Kawamura, associate professor at UF and special assistant to the director for FHCED. “I was a little surprised, but she agreed to go on a trip to Japan the week she started as president. She understood even then that it was important to invest her time in that relationship. And her entire career she did it consistently, carefully and sensitively.”
Findlay enjoys a rich, mutually beneficial friendship with Japan, dating back to 1984 when trailblazing business leaders traveled there to gain financing for expansion of the city’s water treatment plant. They obtained the funding and established relationships, then returned with an eye for business development. It worked. Japanese businesses began locating in Findlay in the late 1980s and there are eight in Hancock County today. The Findlay community has evolved to support Japanese businesses and families, and cultural exchange has enriched and shaped the community.
UF’s roots in the relationship date all the way to the beginning – former UF President Kenneth Zirkle was one of the original delegation members to visit Japan. In 1992, UF began participating in the Ohio Saitama University Scholarship program, as part of Ohio’s sister-state relationship with Saitama Prefecture. One free tuition is granted to a Japanese student each year, and UF is the only university still offering the scholarship. Along with Japanese enrollees, the university often welcomes government officials and leaders in higher education, along with younger students through exchange programs.
Dr. Fell at a reception held at the Mazza Museum celebrating 10 years of partnership with Japan’s University of Fukui. Every year, a Fukui student has come to Findlay to study, and during that time the relationship has broadened to include business and government connections. President Emeritus DeBow Freed stands to her left. (December 2016)
This March, Dr. Fell, along with leaders in business, education and government, hosted a reception for Consulate General of Japan, Hajime Kishimori at her home. Dr. Hiro Kawamura is on the far right in the middle, with Fell standing in front of him. Liz Ditto, executive assistant to the president, is on the far left.
Fell respected and remained committed to further developing UF’s ties with Japan throughout her tenure. Yet she was a strong partner to economic development in all ways, consistently prepared to coordinate with business leaders.
Tim Mayle worked with Fell closely for 11 years, as assistant director, then director of FHCED, and also as director of the Center to Advance Manufacturing. The Center was a collaborative between UF, Bowling Green State University and Owens Community College that worked to pool resources and innovate partnerships between business, manufacturing and higher education. As part of delegations, Mayle and Fell traveled to Japan numerous times together, as well as India and Brazil.
Mayle said Fell worked closely with business leaders to ensure the university’s curricula equipped students to meet the needs of the workforce. She was responsive to business, adding new programming areas, offering language instruction for businesses to train employees, implementing credential offerings to upskill the workforce, and finding ways to serve non-traditional students. She worked with economic development to connect students with local jobs. And she was always ready to showcase the university as an asset to business, a collaborative partner that would share resources, including the knowledge of scientists and highly educated faculty.
If economic development brought a prospective business to Findlay, Mayle said Fell was always dependable to join meetings, host at the university, or host meetings or events at her home. She also served on The Findlay-Hancock County Alliance Board of Directors, including as chair.
“Whatever we would need from her, she would always be game for anything we would ask her to do, whether it was traveling or hosting a company coming to town,” Mayle said. “You could always count on her and she had a steady hand with everything. I never once saw her uncomfortable, or not in control of whatever situation we were in. It was always nice having her there. She had a way of finding the solution through difficult discussions.”
Like Fell, Kawamura is a connector. He has appreciated that Fell always understood the value in allowing him to, in effect, serve as an ambassador to Japanese businesses and families in Findlay. Kawamura is an associate professor at UF, but she allowed and encouraged him to serve as special assistant to the director of FHCED and also as JETRO Ohio (Japan External Trade Organization) Grassroots Advisor.
For both UF and FHCED, Kawamura plans delegation trips to Japan, as well as the agenda when Japanese groups visit Findlay. And through relationships in business, education, government and with local Japanese families, he knows when needs unique to the Japanese community arise and reaches out to the right people in Findlay who will make change. In a nutshell: “I help people hear each other better.”
“She always allowed me to use my time flexibly so I could invest my time and resources on the ED work,” Kawamura said. “It’s not so much about the attraction of new business, it’s about retaining companies. It is specialized, linking the Japanese community and Findlay community. It is not in my job description, but she always understood that importance and that is her indirect contribution.”
Fell directly showed the importance she placed on the relationship through sustained commitment. She always showed up and always answered calls, Kawamura said, whether it was day or evening. She invested her time in the long view and saw the business and educational communities as one.
Other universities may have relationships with other countries, but Findlay’s friendship with Japan is, “especially warm and personal and a distinctive factor for UF. Certainly not just an educational business deal where people get credentials,” she said.
“To me, it’s an essential factor in educating our own students from the U.S. They need to understand the world beyond their experience,” Fell explained. “I think our relationship with Japan has helped, even if they don’t go. It broadens students’ understanding of humanity into a realistic view of our own culture and in understanding that we are not the center of the universe, and neither is Japan. We live on this planet with other people who love their countries too. Education done well should help with that.”
During her presidency, Fell traveled to Japan eight times. She visited India twice and paid one visit each to Brazil and the Dominican Republic.
Dr. Fell was part of a Findlay delegation to Japan with FHCED in 2015. Here, the delegation sampled Fukui sake with former Gov. Kiyoshi Ueda of the Saitama Prefecture. (L-R) Former Findlay Mayor Lydia Mihalik, Fell, Gov. Ueda, Former FHCED Directors Tim Mayle and Tony Iriti, and Kawamura.
A Fond Farewell
Dr. Fell’s exceptional ability to connect, collaborate, and adapt, as seen in her work with the business community and relationship with Japan, provides a window into what made her so successful in the greater scope during her time leading the Oilers.
In addition to serving on The Alliance Board of Directors, she was a founding member of the Marathon Center for the Performing Arts board, chair of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Ohio, chair of the Presidents’ Council of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC), and a Gov. Mike DeWine appointed member of the Ohio Humanities Council Board of Trustees.
Looking back, Fell is proud of the growth in philanthropy that was cultivated during her time at UF. “It’s become a natural part of our culture and part of our community and alumni expectations.”
She celebrates the addition of several market-sensitive academic programs. “The faculty and deans and vice presidents for academic affairs have made that happen, and I’m grateful,” she said.
She remembers Covid as a tremendous challenge, but one that was managed together.
“We don’t protest, we pivot, and we work through to solutions.”
And she was proud to have successfully shifted UF from the Great Midwest Athletic Conference to the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Conference.
“It was a big decision,” she said. “Athletics is a deeply respected tradition here, and we wanted to be sure it would continue to be successful. It was the right move, and I appreciated very much that the coaches and other staff in athletics were forthcoming and respectful. Credit goes to the athletic department.”
One of her all-time favorite memories is a snapshot of student life on campus. After a rigorous fundraising campaign, the university was able to build the Center for Student Life and College of Business, now a centerpiece and favorite gathering place on campus.
Dr. Fell visiting “late night” with students at the Center for Student Life and College of Business.
The Center for Student Life and College of Business is a central gathering spot for students on campus.
Fell was awarded President Emeritus status by the UF Board of Trustees in May, an honorary title reserved to mark a distinguished career. Only one other UF President, her predecessor DeBow Freed, has been honored with Emeritus status.
A rendering of the Katherine and Roger Fell Center’s new name.
In an address during a gala to announce the renaming of the building, Liz Ditto, executive assistant to the president, shared the kind of personal impact Fell left on the people who worked with her day in and day out. Hers was a “front row seat to Fell’s extraordinary leadership.”
“I have watched her navigate seemingly impossible decisions with grace, champion our institution through storms most people never saw coming, and do it all with incredible composure. In eleven years, there have been moments that are hilarious and devastating…moments filled with joy and filled with sorrow. Moments that require steadiness, trust, and the kind of loyalty that doesn’t need to announce itself. And through every single one of them — she has been there for me, and I have tried my very best to be there for her.
Dr. Fell and Liz Ditto, executive assistant, have worked side by side for 11 years.
In retirement, the Fells plan to divide their time between homes in Findlay and Sugar Land, TX, which will keep them within driving distance of their children, 10 grandchildren (with one on the way), and friends. They look forward to traveling, Fell plans to do more reading and writing for fun, and then there is the currently unheard of, “more freedom to just spend time as we choose.”
Fell has led with connection, wit, unwavering commitment, warmth, and a gift for well-timed Southern humor that captivated audiences and disarmed tension. A natural researcher, she was always prepared, yet her dynamic ability to shift in the moment made her stand out through the action packed, ever-shifting workdays of a university president. Hers was a presidency of compassion and humility, and a genuine wish to “equip students for meaningful lives and productive careers.”
“I believe the University of Findlay cause and mission will outlive us all,” she said. “I love knowing the effect it has on students’ lives, and the people here who do that daily work are an inspiration to me. It’s joyful. It’s amazing.
“People make friendships here that last a lifetime. All of this makes this job so much more than the bottom line. When someone invests in us it’s not the way they would invest in the stock market, when they invest in us, they invest in people –-that type of giving is the best of humanity.”
Dr. Fell poses with students at Homecoming in 2019.
Dr. Fell with members of the women’s rugby team in 2026.
