When Dr. Larry Long retired as executive director of Illinois State’s School of Communication at the end of 2014, he and his wife, Penelope Long, Ph.D. ’87 headed for high ground. They built their dream home on two acres on a mountaintop in Ashe County, North Carolina, in the northwest part of the state.
Appears In“We are absolutely happy here,” Larry Long said. “We are 10 miles from town. I can see Christmas trees growing on the other side of the New River Valley, and it’s a heckuva lot quieter than living in Bloomington-Normal.”
Here the couple has the beauty of nature, family nearby, and each other (they’ve been married for 47 years).
“When we get up in the morning, we read our news feed and go through email, which is still 75 or 80 emails a day,” Long said. “And I like to go fly-fishing as much as I can.”
Long credits his neighbor, a retired physician and seasoned fisherman, for teaching him how to catch mountain stream trout with a fly rod. Long’s favorite fishing companion is his 13-year-old grandson, Parker Evans.
The Longs have three grandchildren, and their son, Braden, lives in Boone, North Carolina. Their daughter, Allison ’04, died in 2015.
Larry and Penelope met at the University of North Texas. He’s from Oklahoma; she’s a Texan. He came to Illinois State in 1979 as an assistant professor and helped to establish the first public relations major in the state before leaving for North Carolina State University.
In 2001, Larry returned to Illinois State as the new Department of Communication chair. Among his accomplishments were transforming the department into the School of Communication and developing the Social Media Analytics Command Center. Penelope was director of advising for the school during her husband’s tenure and previously taught business writing in the College of Business.
Larry has kept busy in retirement editing a couple of books and writing some book chapters. He’s also active in leadership and communication training for law enforcement agencies.
What was his favorite part of his time at Illinois State?
“Everything,” he said, adding that he loved his colleagues and the community. “Say hi to all my friends at ISU.”
He can be reached at lwlong@IllinoisState.edu.
