Robert “Bob” Nickelson, chief business officer in the College of Applied Human Sciences, retired from West Virginia University on September 1 after 35 years of service to the university.
“WVU has provided me and my family a life and a career that I couldn’t have ever imagined,” Nickelson said. “I am grateful for all of the people I’ve been privileged to work with and learn from, and I’m forever proud to be a Mountaineer.”
Nickelson began his career at WVU as an accounting machine operator in 1988 doing data entry. He continued to be promoted as an accountant at WVU working primarily for WVU Extension, eventually serving as the assistant director in the business office before becoming the chief business officer in 2014. While at WVU Extension, he served four years as the President for the Northeast Managing Officers, an organization tasked with interfacing and engaging with the USDA on behalf of colleges and universities in that geographic footprint.
In 2019, he became the CBO for the College of Education and Human Services before moving to the same role in the College of Applied Human Sciences in 2022.
Nickelson, who had suffered from Parkinson’s disease symptoms for nearly a decade before being officially diagnosed in 2020, also had double-bypass heart surgery last fall.
“The heart surgery really forced me to slow down,” Nickelson said. “And slowing down really helped reduce my symptoms from Parkinson’s. I loved going to work and I’m going to miss the people and being a part of what we are building in CAHS under Dean Cyprès, but going through all of that last fall made me realize it’s time to listen to the doctors and retire.”