Dr. Robert Dooley is interim chancellor of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Photo by Angela Foster.
On Jan. 1, Dr. Robert Dooley assumed his role as interim chancellor of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, becoming the 18th leader in University history.
Dooley, who received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and religion from UTC in 1983 and an MBA in 1991—along with a Ph.D. from the UT Knoxville College of Business in 1996—returned to his alma mater in 2011 as dean of the Gary W. Rollins College of Business. He also served as interim provost in 2018.
Before coming back to UTC, Dooley spent 15 years with Oklahoma State University, where he rose to associate dean for graduate programs and research in the Spears School of Business.
His wife, Kim, earned a bachelor’s degree in history from UTC in 1987. The Dooleys recently celebrated their 39th anniversary.
Before the holiday break, Dooley sat down for a conversation.
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Let’s turn back the clock to early November when you get a phone call from UT System President Randy Boyd saying he wants you to be the interim chancellor. What’s it like to get a call like that?
“I was surprised and honored for sure, but a little taken aback. I was traveling in China when Chancellor (Steve) Angle announced he was stepping out and going back to the faculty. That announcement took me by surprise because it was very unexpected.
“I got back from China at midnight on Sunday night (Nov. 3) and President Boyd called me at 9 a.m. Monday morning. He said, ‘I’d like to talk with you about being interim chancellor.’ I was super honored and I told him I was honored—but I was really surprised.”
You mentioned you were in China when the Dr. Angle news broke. International experiences have been very important to you and your wife, especially in terms of student travel-abroad opportunities. How did that all come about?
“I was in my 30s the first time I left the country. It was in 1994 or 1995 as part of a USAID grant through the University of Tennessee at Knoxville; I was finishing up my doctoral studies and I had the opportunity to travel with my dissertation chair on extended trips to Eastern Europe. That sparked something in me.
“When I got to Oklahoma State, I started leading student trips abroad. International travel can transform people in the way they perceive the world—and I love exposing students to it. It broadens how you view things from different perspectives.
“If you talk about it from a business education perspective, it’s critically important to be able to understand different cultures. We’re truly a global economy, so those interactions are essential—particularly when you go to countries that are so different from where you’re from. I think it’s an important experience for students to have.”
In 2018, during his time as interim provost, Dr. Robert Dooley—attached to a member of the U.S. Army’s Golden Knights parachute team—jumped out of an airplane at about 14,000 feet.
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Your time as dean has included the courting of Gary and Kathleen Rollins and their two transformative gifts, the introduction of the Joseph F. DeCosimo Success Center, bringing the Veterans Entrepreneurship Program (VEP) to UTC and the birth of the SMILE Fund—to name a few highlights. It also has included jumping out of an airplane, participating in “Down with the Dean”—where students lined up to send you into a dunk tank—and acquiring a house full of pinball machines. So, who’s the real Robert Dooley?
“Both. I enjoy having fun. I enjoy having a personal life outside of work and I’ve always worked from the position of ‘I don’t say no.’ If there’s a new experience or a new opportunity presented to me—for example, skydiving or learning how to work on pinball machines, which has now become somewhat of an obsession—I take advantage of it.
“That same mentality is what has driven my approach to the College of Business. When you pursue new opportunities, some things work out and some things don’t. Some things you like and some things you don’t. The reality is if you don’t put yourself out there a little bit and take advantage of those opportunities when they come by, they don’t happen. The VEP is a classic example.
“When I came here from Oklahoma State, I reached out to the gentleman who ran the VEP program there and I said, ‘There are a couple of things you need to know about Chattanooga. One, it’s had the longest-running Armed Forces Day parade in history since (President Harry) Truman made the proclamation, so we’re a very patriotic city. Two, we’ve got military bases like Fort Campbell in close proximity. This is a perfect place for us to have a second VEP program.’ So we just did it. It seemed like an opportunity we shouldn’t let pass by.”
Let’s talk more about the pinball machines. How did that obsession begin?
“My wife knew I loved pinball so she bought me a pinball machine for one of our anniversaries. We were getting ready to go out to dinner with friends and there was a knock on the door; this company was delivering a pinball machine. I’m like, ‘Holy smokes. Call our friends. We’re canceling dinner. We’re staying home playing pinball.’ That started it, and then I became fascinated with the way the machines worked.
“I got involved in a couple of online pinhead groups—they call them pinheads, people that are into pinball—and I learned there were so many machines for sale. It was fun to find these owner/operators, drive a couple of hundred miles, go to their warehouse, climb around and look at pinball machines. You could pick them up for a very inexpensive amount of money; I paid a couple hundred bucks for some of the machines and learned how to rebuild them.
“I still have 22 machines, which is down from 28. My favorite is a machine that doesn’t get a lot of attention—a 1980 Williams called Blackout. And I love Xenon, a Bally machine from around 1981. It was the first female talking pinball machine.”
Dr. Robert Dooley and his pinball machines.
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You’ve seen a lot of change from your student days. What is the UTC of 2025 like vs. the time you were here as an undergraduate?
“It’s almost unrecognizable. Some of the buildings are certainly recognizable, but in terms of the campus, in terms of its growth, in terms of its impact and connection to the city, in terms of the size of the student body … everything about this campus has dramatically changed.
“When I was first here as an undergraduate student, I would imagine there probably weren’t more than 500 students living on campus—maybe not even that many. We had three dorms: the old Village Apartments, which are now Boling; the old stadium dorms; and you had Pfeiffer Stagmaier. Now, we’ve become a traditional campus with 3,600 students living here. It’s incredible how different it’s become.
“I walk across campus sometimes and literally pinch myself like, really? I mean, walking up Cardiac Hill, you have these little flashbacks going to the old Lupton Library. Sometimes, it’s just a little bit of a dream state. I can’t believe that I was here in the late ’70s and early ’80s—and now I’m back here and I’m in this capacity.
“I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunities that have been given to me over the years and I love being here. I can’t imagine being anywhere else.”
What do you want students to know about their new chancellor that might surprise them?
“It’s usually surprising to students to know that I’m somewhat of a music buff and that I’m a little bit of a headbanger. I like Rage Against the Machine. I like Tool. I go to heavy metal concerts. I’m a huge Rage fan. In fact, I saw them on their last tour.
“There’s that piece of it that a lot of people don’t probably realize, just like the pinball piece. I think people forget that—even when you get a title—there’s still a personal life that goes with it. Deep down inside, I’m a middle-aged guy who likes to play a little pinball and listen to loud music.”
Learn more
Dr. Robert Dooley’s journey in coming home to lead, inspire and give back
Dr. Robert Dooley, left, and Capt. Kevin Beavers, former head of UTC’s Department of Military Science.
