John L. Crompton holds the rank of University Distinguished Professor and is both a Regents Professor and a Presidential Professor for Teaching Excellence at Texas A&M; University. He received his basic training in England. His undergraduate work was in physical education and geography at Loughborough College. After teaching high school for a year, he attended the University of Illinois, where he completed a MS degree in Recreation and Park Administration in 1968. In 1970, he was awarded another MS degree from Loughborough University of Technology, majoring in Business Administration. In 1970, he joined Loughborough Recreation Planning Consultants as their first full-time employee. When he left as managing director in 1974, LRPC had developed into the largest consulting firm in the United Kingdom, specializing in recreation and tourism, with a full-time staff of 25 and supplemented by a number of part-time associate consultants.
In 1974, Dr. Crompton came to Texas A&M; University. He received his doctorate in Recreation Resources Development in 1977. For some years he taught graduate and undergraduate courses in both the Department of Recreation and Parks and the Department of Marketing at Texas A&M; University, but he now teaches exclusively in the Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences.
Dr. Crompton’s primary interests are in the areas of marketing and financing public leisure and tourism services. He is author or co-author of 18 books and a substantial number of articles that have been published in the recreation, tourism, sport and marketing fields. He is the most published scholar in the history of both the parks and recreation, and the tourism fields.
Dr. Crompton has conducted many hundreds of workshops on Marketing and/or Financing Leisure Services. He has lectured or conducted workshops in many foreign countries and has delivered keynote addresses at the World Leisure Congress and at Annual National Park and Recreation Conferences in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States.
He is a past recipient of the National Park Foundation’s Cornelius Amory Pugsley award for outstanding national contributions to parks and conservation; the US Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Colleges National Teacher of the Year Award; the National Recreation and Park Association’s (NRPA) Distinguished Professional award; the NRPA National Literary award; the NRPA Roosevelt award for outstanding research; the Distinguished Colleague and the Distinguished Teaching awards of the Society of Park and Recreation Educators; the Travel and Tourism Research Association’s Travel Research award; the U.S. Department of Agriculture National award for Teaching Excellence; and is a Minnie Stevens Piper Professor for excellent teaching in the state of Texas.
At Texas A&M;, he is Cintron University Professor for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. He has received the Bush Excellence Award for Public Service (presented personally by President H. W. Bush); the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching; the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station’s Faculty Fellow and Senior Faculty Fellow Awards for exceptional research contributions; the University Distinguished Achievement Award for Research and the University Distinguished Achievement Award for Teaching.
He was a member of the NRPA’s Board of Trustees for nine years; and is a past president of four professional bodies: the Texas Recreation and Parks Society; the American Academy of Park and Recreation Administration; the Society of Park and Recreation Educators; and the Academy of Leisure Sciences. He is a Board member of the National Recreation Foundation.
In 2006, the city of College Station named a new 16-acre neighborhood park, John Crompton Park. Dr. Crompton served four years as a city councilman for College Station from 2007-2011, and was Mayor Pro Tem in 2010-2011. The city’s population is 95,000, the annual budget is $260 million, and there are approximately 900 full-time employees. The six council members and the mayor are all elected city wide.
