BANGOR (AP) – University of Maine System trustees voted on Friday to elect Robert Kennedy as the president of the University of Maine, ending a seven-month long search for someone to lead the system’s flagship school, a spokesman for Gov. John Baldacci said.

System Chancellor Joseph Westphal and board chairman Charles Johnson were expected to make the announcement after a closed-door executive meeting of the trustees. Kennedy will be the 18th president at UMaine’s Orono campus.

Baldacci’s spokesman, Lynn Kippax, confirmed Kennedy’s selection Friday afternoon.

“He is experienced as a senior leader at several of our nation’s top public universities,” Westphal said in a release. “He understands the special and distinct role and responsibilities of a land-grant university.”

Kennedy, who served as a provost and vice president at the University of Maine since 2000, has been serving as interim president since August when he took over for outgoing university president Peter Hoff, who resigned last year.

“Dr. Kennedy proved he was best suited for the enormous responsibilities of the UMaine presidency,” Johnson said in a joint statement with Westphal. “Of all the candidates, he demonstrated that he was the most knowledgeable, experienced, accomplished, and prepared for the position.”

A plant biochemist, Kennedy grew up in Minnesota and graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1968. After serving in the Army, he earned a doctorate in botany from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1974.

Kennedy’s academic career has included posts at the University of Iowa, Washington State University, Ohio State University, the University of Maryland and Texas A&M University. Kennedy served as vice president for research and associate provost for graduate studies at Texas A&M before coming to Maine.

Speaking in Orono following the announcement, Kennedy expressed his gratitude to the trustees, chancellor and search committee.

“I look forward with great enthusiasm to leading the University of Maine as it continues to play a growing and significant role in shaping the future of Maine and the world beyond the state’s borders,” Kennedy said. “I am sincerely humbled.”

Kennedy’s wife, Mary Rumpho-Kennedy, is a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the school. The couple reside in Veazie and have four sons.

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AP-ES-04-15-05 1523EDT

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