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Michigan State AD Norvell to resign

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Posted: Thursday April 15, 1999 10:08 PM

EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Michigan State athletic director Merritt Norvell said Thursday he will step down this spring to join a firm specializing in searches for executives.

Norvell didn't specify when he would step down, saying only that joining DHR International Inc. "is an opportunity that I feel is best for my family and me." He would become president of the Chicago-based firm's education-services division.

Norvell, athletic director since 1995, has 15 months left on his contract, which the university plans to honor, assistant AD John Lewandowski said. Norvell would step down by June and will serve out the remainder of his contract as a consultant.

Clarence Underwood, a senior associate AD, will be the interim athletic director while a permanent replacement is sought.

McPherson said a permanent successor to Norvell could be in place by this fall.

"We will immediately undertake a search for a director who ideally will serve for 10 years or more," university president Peter McPherson said. "He [Underwood] has said that since we will be expecting a long-term commitment, he will not be a candidate."

In making Norvell the Spartans' first black athletic director and only the second in Big Ten history, McPherson said in 1995 he "needed a person who could lead, who could plan strategically."

"Plus," McPherson added later, "I thought it was a plus to have been a Division I athlete, to know that level of competition. I'm very pleased with the job he's doing."

Norvell came to Michigan State with degrees from Wisconsin in criminology, psychiatric social work and education -- and what colleagues noted was his commitment to gender-equity issues.

Norvell began a marketing firm, The Norvell Group, after graduating in 1963. He joined IBM in 1977, where he worked until retiring in 1994 to concentrate on private marketing ventures.

 

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