J. Robert Rossman, Ph.D. currently serves as a Visiting Professor in the Department of Park, Recreation, and Tourism Sciences at Texas A & M University. He has held a variety of roles in park and recreation administration for over 40 years. He also served as a professor and Dean of the College of Applied Science and Technology at Illinois State University, Normal Illinois where he holds the titles of Professor Emeritus and Dean Emeritus. He was introduced to the field of park and recreation administration through a variety of summer jobs including arts and crafts instructor, lifeguard, pool manager, and resident camp counselor.

He earned his B.S. in Recreation With Distinction from Indiana University in 1968. Upon graduation he was accepted into the NRPA National Internship Program in Oak Park, Illinois under the direction of Robert Toalson. Eighteen months into the internship program he was promoted to Assistant Director of Recreation, a position he held for five and one half years.

While in Oak Park he supervised the operation of seven neighborhood recreation centers and developed several community-wide programs including special events and other activities. In this position he developed his interest in the design, operation and management of program services and creating leisure experience through programming. During this time he also earned a Masters Degree through an extension program offered by the Department of Recreation and Park Administration at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

In 1975 he accepted appointment as a Lecturer in the Department of Leisure Studies at the University of Illinois; a position he held until he earned his doctorate in 1981. Upon completing his Ph.D., he was appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Leisure Studies at the University of Illinois. Since leaving the U of I in 1983 he has held academic appointments at four universities including the University of North Texas, the University of Nevada Las Vegas, Illinois State University, and Texas A & M University. Throughout his academic career he has been involved in administering programs in recreation, parks, and leisure studies having served a total of thirteen years as department chair and ten years as dean.

Dr. Rossman has published and made numerous presentations on recreation program development, design, and management. He has given workshops and presentations on programming and staging leisure experiences to academic audiences, public recreation and military recreation personnel throughout the world. He is the lead author of a major textbook on recreation programming that is now in its fifth edition. The book has been used since 1989 to teach recreation programming at over 100 universities in the US, Canada, Australia, Thailand, Taiwan, and New Zealand. It is also a standard desk reference used by professional programmers.

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