Norval F. Pohl, former business dean

Professor Norval

Norval F. Pohl, former dean of NAU’s business college, died at his home in Phoenix, May 12, 2009. He was 65.

Dr. Pohl was born and raised in Turlock, Calif., in the heart of California’s central San Joaquin valley. Although his bachelor’s degree was in psychology at California State University-Fresno, he returned from college to work the farm where he was raised with his brother. He returned to graduate school at Fresno State University and later earned his doctorate in quantitative systems at Arizona State University.

He taught at the University of California-Santa Clara and became dean of Northern Arizona University’s then-named College of Business Administration in 1981. In 1986, Dr. Pohl moved to Las Vegas and began his career at UNLV. There he served as dean of the College of Business and Economics from 1986 to 1994, and vice president of Finance and Administration from 1994 to 1998. He left Las Vegas in 1998 to become executive vice president and later president of University of North Texas in Denton, Texas.

Dr. Pohl joined Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott in 2007 where he was chancellor.

He is survived by his wife, Barbikay, two children, Prescott and Chandler, and one grandson.