Professor John Kenneth Kelly

Professor John Kenneth Kelly died on Friday, January 31, 2025. His 95 years of life were full of countless professional accomplishments including 20 years as a New York City policeman, a Fulbright scholar at Scotland Yard, an officer of the United Nations and a professor at the University of Delaware. Professor Kelly was the founding Chairman of the Criminal Justice Department in 1971. Kelly spent fifty-two years studying crime, justice and corrections. After thirty-three years teaching at the University of Delaware Doctor Kelly retired in 2003. He spent the remainder of his life writing about his findings. He succumbed in his sleep at the age of 95.

He is survived by his son, Ken, four adult grandchildren and ten great grandchildren. The love of his life and wife of 66 years, Dorothy, passed away in 2019. In his writings, “Dotty Dreamer” was a profound influence and his partner in this worldwide journey.

Professor Kelly was the first police officer to gain a Fulbright fellowship to study the operations and procedures at Scotland Yard. He compared the London law enforcement operation and compare it with his own experiences in New York City. Following a year’s assignment to Scotland Yard, he returned to NYPD to complete a 20-year police career. In 1968 he was appointed to the head of the Criminology section to the United Nations. In 1971 he continued his teaching career as the founding chairman of the Criminal Justice department at the University of Delaware and taught thousands of undergraduate students for thirty-three years.

All this began in 1951, soon after his discharge from the Navy, when he was sworn in as a patrolman in New York City. His first assignment was to the old 18th precinct (now Mid-town North) still located on West 54th Street. Pounding a beat amid the glitz of Times Square and the rough and tumble, shabby streets of Hell’s Kitchen was a unique experience for the 21-year-old rooky policeman Kelly.

Later he would write about his first five years as a uniformed cop in Brooklyn and Manhattan:

“The 18th Precinct was, without a doubt, the most stimulating section of New York City that could be offered to the inquiring mind of a young policeman. Situated in the middle of Manhattan, it displayed all the elements of city life in a showcase that was as tarnished as it was bright. The area was replete with characters which could easily match the creations of Damon Runyon and situations which were matchless by the very fact that they were not created but occurred with great regularity.

The rich and the poor, the famous and the infamous, the gifted and giftless, all inhabited the confines of the 18th Precinct. On one street was the apartment of Marilyn Monroe and around the corner the duplex of Frank Costello. A little further east was the townhouse of Nelson Rockefeller and up the block, the palatial penthouse of Billy Rose. 

Besides the bright lights and the celebrities, the 18^th Precinct served as the stomping grounds for the lesser lights of society. Prostitutes plied their trade on 8^th Avenue and a block over on 9^th alcoholics staggered toward an elusive oblivion. High above the streets, the cat burglar sought a more substantial destiny and paid an even dearer price for failure while across town, on the banks of the Hudson, in the savage struggles of the International Longshoreman’s Union, the cheapness of human life shocked even those accustomed to the ordinary atrocities of the urban experience. 

Walking my beat and meeting the many characters that peopled the 18^th Precinct aroused in me a sense of wonder. How did such things come about? What made the destinies of some human beings so totally different from those of others? Why was man occasionally created in the image of prostitute, the drug addict, the rapist and the murderer?” 

This gnawing curiosity prompted Patrolman Kelly to enroll in Brooklyn College. A steady assignment to the midnight shift allowed him to shuttle between the harsh realities of the 18^th Precinct and the broad speculations of the college classroom. A fascinating array of theory and practice swirled about him daily. The next assignment in 1956 was the New York Waterfront Commission. This gave Patrolmen Kelly the opportunity to investigate the mob takeover of the Hudson River piers.  He came to understand at first hand the genesis of the hoodlum world and its corruptive influence on society.

Soon after graduating with a BA in Psychology, Patrolman Kelly was offered two positions, one was a detective’s shield the other option was a transferred to the newly formed Juvenile Aid Bureau. In plain clothes, working out of the 23rd precinct in East Harlem his jurisdiction was the East Side of Manhattan from 14^th Street to 116^th Street. About the philosophy of his new assignment, he would write:

“The J.A.B. gave me an entirely different view of police work. I was no longer involved in apprehension but prevention. My cases were juvenile delinquents and my goal was to do everything possible to keep them from becoming adult criminals. This thoughtful approach permitted me to gain a deeper understanding of crime causation, a vital factor that had been denied to me for five years as a busy cop working a busier beat.” 

Patrolman Kelly, confronted by a steady stream of young burglars, robbers, rapists, shoplifters and arsonists, was charged with changing the direction of their lives. Truly an awesome task but so much more gratifying than handing out a summons for a traffic violation.

After two years in Spanish Harlem, Patrolman Kelly was transferred to the 32^nd and 28th Precinct of Central Harlem. The area was given by police the distinctive moniker, “Murderville”. Not only did it have the highest homicide rate in the New York City, but it had a reputation of being the most fatal for policemen. The 32^nd Precinct had the distinction of experiencing two separate killings of cops in a single weekend. One officer had been gunned down on a Friday night and another on a Sunday night. Nothing like this had ever happened in the history of the New York Police department.

But to Patrolman Kelly there was a special attraction in the 32^nd precinct. It was just a short walk of three blocks from the station house to The City College of New York, he quickly enrolled to study for his master’s degree. As a crime prevention specialist, he could use some textbook insights. Little did he realize how far he would be taken into the academic world with this one decision.

From City College his research brought him a few blocks away to Columbia University where he fell under the influence of Professor Allen Nevins. Nevins was struggling to introduce a new concept of historical study to which he gave the name ORAL HISTORY. Making use of a primitive wire recorder he would document the recollections of those involved in key historical events to determine what really happened. These were people who would never write about their experiences but would be pleased to talk about them.

Graduate Student Kelly was fascinated by this completely new idea, as the century progressed Oral History interviews would become the dominant technique of preserving details of the past. This Oral History process would record firsthand experiences of witnesses to daily life and historical events that shaped New York City. It would have a profound impact on local history along with the writing of memoirs and the formulation of television documentaries. He was especially interested in how it could be used to get the “inside story” from policemen, lawyers, judges and even criminals in the close mouthed world of law enforcement.

Soon welcomed as a member of the Oral History staff, Kelly took it upon himself to conduct a taped interview with 78 year old Partolman Samuel Battle. Battle had been the first black policeman in the history of New York and the tale he had to tell was unique. He was to die a few years later but Oral History had given him the opportunity to describe in detail the role Battle had played in overcoming the significant racial barrier.

Further interviews followed with historic policemen, social workers, lawyers, judges and even criminals. But the best was achieved when, in 1960, the former Police Commissioner and Mayor of New York City, William O’Dwyer, agreed to provide his reminiscences to Graduate student Kelly for an oral history. Mayor O’Dwyer had to be one of the most interesting political personalities of the 20^th Century. His was the story of an individual who arose from obscurity, achieved the pinnacle of popular success and then found himself castigated by all as a criminal.

Immigrating from Ireland in 1910, William O’Dwyer held down all these menial jobs assigned to the newcomer in America. By 1917, he managed to gain an appointment as a policeman. Going on to law school, he entered the legal profession and rose steadily from magistrate to judge and finally Brooklyn District Attorney. As D.A., O’Dwyer undertook to rid the city of racketeers who had gained control over many aspects of Brooklyn life. O’Dwyer’s sights were principally aimed at a band of mobsters responsible for hundreds of murders in New York but all over the United States. Hired assassins were so well organized as killers that they earned the designation “Murder Inc.” D.A. O’Dwyer’s success as an investigator was phenomenal, he managed to prosecute the kingpins of the organization and send four assassins to the electric chair.

Such achievement put Brooklyn D.A. O’Dwyer head and shoulders over the Manhattan D.A. Thomas Dewey, another mob buster whose mob busting would make him two times (1944 and 1948) Republican candidate for President of the United States. Not being born in America, O’Dwyer could never follow the path of Dewey but he could become a good candidate to snatch the governorship of New York State away from Dewey, destroying his path to the White House. This factor would provide the seed of O’Dwyer’s own political destruction at a future date.

In 1941, with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, O’Dwyer volunteered his services to President Roosevelt to be used in any capacity to win the war. Given the rank of US Army Captain, he soon earned his way up to Brigadier General. His first assignment was to Senator Henry Truman as chief investigator for his committee to prosecute war profiteering. By 1945, when Germany was on the verge of defeat, President Roosevelt dispatched him to Italy to serve as Head of the War Refugee Board.

Discharged from military service, “Bill” O’Dwyer, returned to politics and possessing an impeccable record of public service he was overwhelmingly elected Mayor of New York City twice. Serving for two terms until 1950, when now President Harry Truman appointed him to Ambassador to Mexico.

The 1952 Kefauver Crime Commission report accused O’Dwyer of a host of crimes that ran the gamut from income tax evasion to murder. Soon, he was seen as the most crooked mayor ever to occupy New York’s City Hall yet no solid evidence ever surfaced to provide substance to any of these scurrilous accusations.

So now in 1960, through oral history, William O’Dwyer was given the opportunity to answer the Crime Commission and all his other many accusers. Even of greater value was the ability to reflect on his meteoric political career. To tell the story of how an immigrant landed alone in a city over which he would eventually rule as its top official. As mayor, he would guide the destiny of a great city at a time when it was emerging as the greatest city in the history of the world.

All this was done with graduate student Kelly questioning him over a period of two years that resulted in over 100 hours of O’Dwyer reminiscences. It remains as one of the most extensive oral histories ever compiled for Columbia University. Eventually Kelly would produce a personal biography for William O’Dwyer. Paul O’Dwyer, the Mayor’s brother and President of the NY City Council later said Bill O’Dwyer passed away with the book on his nightstand.

Patrolman Kelly’s work at Columbia began turning his mind in other directions. The practical education he had been given by Allen Nevin’s oral history program and his studies for a master’s degree had given him a vision of life beyond New York City. His expanding curiosity felt stifled by its confinement to one, narrow level of experience. This shifting focus would best be described in his writings:

I wondered if concentrating all my attention on New York City had given me a distorted vision of the urban condition. Were other cities different? How did they handle their problems? What about such things as narcotics, violence and juvenile delinquency? 

Questions such as these turned my mind outward and made me think of a larger world. Looking back now in an effort to understand how my interest in the London Police Department developed, I trace its origin to a question put to me by a 12 year old student in 1958. At that time, I was assigned to the New Lincoln School to give a lecture on police work to some young students. 

When I finished, the floor was thrown open to any questions from the kids. One youngster, after raising his hand politely, asked: “why is it that London Police are so honest and New York cops corrupt?” Needless to say, it was quite a question and I doubt if anyone but a child would have asked it.   

Looking back, I can’t even remember how it was answered. But I do recall vividly the chain reaction of questions it set off in my own mind. I started wondering if there were any essential differences between the police of London and New York. Here were two great cities of the world linked historically by law, culture and language – how did they differ and how were they similar? 

As an avocation of sorts, I soon set about to answer these questions. First, I looked for books contrasting the crime situation in both cities but, oddly enough, I did not find any. Then, as I am an empirical type of individual, I sought personal contacts. I secured the name and address of a London police officer and began to correspond with him. This only sharpened my appetite and I soon realized that a study had to be done at first hand. The words of Samuel Johnson came to mind:

“The use of travel is to regulate imagination by reality and instead of thinking how things may be to see them as they are.” I had to see things as they are.

In 1961, on the advice of Professor Pomerantz at City College, Patrolman Kelly applied for a Fulbright Scholarship to “…contrast the operation of the London Metropolitan Police with that of the New York City Police Department.’

Essentially, Kelly wanted to make a firsthand study of how the policeman functions in London and compare this with his own personal experiences in New York City. He was more interested in a practical approach to police work than in the theory of administration. Scotland Yard would warrant attention, but he was equally concerned with the work of the ordinary cop on his beat in London’s East End. His own experience had taught him that while the latter’s deeds often go unsung, it is the quality of the work that determines the real worth of any police force.

At the time Kelly applied for the Fulbright he felt the possibility of winning the scholarship was slim. As the award provides sufficient funds for travel, education and living expenses in a foreign country over a period of ten months, the competition among graduate students throughout the United States was extremely keen. Of all the universities in the world, the United Kingdom’s Oxford and Cambridge invariably attract the largest and best qualified number of applicants. He didn’t have much hope of winning, he still felt impelled to try.

Graduate Student Kelly didn’t realize the influence that John Fitzgerald Kennedy would have on his life. In 1961, soon after assuming the presidency, Kennedy set up a special committee to investigate the Institute of International Education. The institute was the group responsible for awarding Fulbright scholarships and thought the 1950’s they had been subject to a barrage of criticism. Mainly they had been accused of awarding scholarships to students bent on studying esoteric subjects that had little if any application to the real world.

As a result of the President Kennedy’s committee many heads rolled within the agency and their mandate was made clear. The institute was expected to grant Fulbright fellowship to scholars undertaking research into practical problems. What better example of this could be found in an award aimed at making a comparison of police work in London and New York City for the purpose of improving American law enforcement?

Further to make it clear to President Kennedy that the Institute of International Education was following his committees mandates the agency approached “Look” magazine to do a story on the Kelly’s Fulbright. “Look”, knowing it would make an interesting tale of a New York cop’s family relocating to London, jumped at the opportunity. Now the President could read plainly from the pages of a popular magazine that his directives were being obeyed.

In June of 1962 Kelly was informed that he had been awarded a Fulbright to study criminology at the London School of Economics, the first such award ever given to a policeman. By September, he was departing on the liner “United States” for England. The event was covered by the press and television and Kelly’s departure was part of a T.V. documentary called “Three Cops”. It told of what happened to three New York City policeman on September 7, 1962. One, who had been shot to death a few days before, was buried, the second had been arrested for bribery and lastly, Kelly, his wife and five-year-old son, Ken, had departed for London where he would study Scotland Yard.

“LOOK”, a pictorial magazine that was second only in popularity to “Life” magazine decided to undertake a full-length story on the Kelly scholarship. A writer and photographer were assigned to travel with Kelly for two weeks in New York City and later, in London. To get pictures of their departure, LOOK proposed that the ships company arrange a Bon Voyage party for which they would provide drinks and food. It was a gala occasion for the entire Kelly family and their friends.

Not only had World War II disposed the British people to welcome almost any American on their shore but other factors tipped the scale overboard in Kelly’s favor. In 1962, the film “West Side Story”, about juvenile gangs in New York City, had taken London by storm. They had been introduced to Officer Kropki and had fallen in love with his brash personality. He was so completely different from their English police nicknamed a “Bobby”.

Equally different from their own concept of law and order were the multitude of police characters they encountered in a series about New York called “The Naked City”. Of all British television, “The Naked City” had the highest rating, even higher than a British police series called “Zed Car”. Londoners were being assaulted by media versions of New York police and now they had the opportunity to meet one in the flesh.

Well, what were the adventures of the Kelly family in their new home at #1 Minster Road in Cricklewood?

Kelly would later write about his experiences as a Fulbright Scholar and how he undertook to study at Scotland Yard:

“My family and I lived in London for ten months. During this time I again combined the theories of the academic world with the realities of urban life.  In the day I attended lectures at the London School of Economics and the evening was spent with policemen patrolling the streets of Shoreditch, Whitechapel and Stepney. I was also officially assigned to Scotland Yard and permitted to observe at first hand the operation of one of the finest police organizations in the world.   

I studied the British system of narcotics control and their methods of handling juvenile delinquents. I observed their unique approach to such common problems as violence, race relations and vice. I spent time with members of the Special Branch, the Criminal Investigation Division, and the world renowned “Flying Squad”. 

Not content with just seeing the police viewpoint, I also arranged to travel to the East End with social workers and youth leaders. I spent some time in the courts observing the English legal structure and talking with judges, magistrates and probation officers. I visited prisons, met the officials and exchanged ideas about crime with convicts. As my primary interest was juvenile delinquency, I made contact with the Children’s Department of the Home Office. They kindly arranged for me to visit schools, detention centers, remand homes and borstals.  

Besides studying the social problems of London and the approach taken by police toward their solutions, I found myself drawn into other areas. At the request of the American Embassy I lectured to various groups on the subject of New York City. Being an oddity in London, I was asked to appear on a number of interview type television programs and wrote two scripts on the life of a New York City cop that were broadcast on the B.B.C. radio. 

In addition, my family and I were fortunate to receive invitations to visit areas outside of London and throughout Europe. Thus we had the opportunity to see most of the major and many of the little-known cities of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. We found ourselves caught up in a variety of social situations that ran the gamut from a sherry party at Cambridge to a week at an adolescent prison called a Borstal.  The latter was an experience none of us will ever forget.” 

Once Great Britain and Ireland were investigated, Kelly moved east to Europe. With his family in tow, Kelly toured for six months visiting and interviewing police organizations in France, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands.

In September of 1963 Kelly returned to work at the police department in New York City. On his return to the United States, Patrolman Kelly was assigned to work directly for the Deputy Commission for Community Relations, where he was given the job of preparing speeches for the Police Commissioner. He was also awarded a scholarship by New York University to study for a Doctorate degree that was awarded in 1972.

In 1968 Patrolman Kelly retired from NYPD and was Sworn in by the Secretary General of the United Nations. Kelly became a member of the Department of Social and Economic Affairs. Serving as a Second Officer of the UN Criminology section. Kelly found himself responsible for planning programs that would effectively cope with crime on an international basis. This broad goal was implemented through the employment of graduate students on fellowships and international experts that would be dispatched all over the world.

Kelly’s most important job at the United Nations was editor of the International Review of Criminal Policy. Published in five languages (English, French, Spanish, Russian and Chinese) from professional contributors from all the member nations of the United Nations. One of the goals of the department was to assist developing nations, former colonies, with the development of their Criminal Justice organization from police administration to courts and prisons.

As he moved to a higher rank in the criminology section the demands made on him were arduous.  He writes:

“In the capacity of Officer-in-Charge, I was responsible for the administration of the Section and its integration with other Sections, Divisions and Departments of the Secretariat. I also dealt with the specialized agencies of the United Nations such as the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF).

One of my most demanding administrative tasks as Officer-in-Charge was that of Liaison Official with the “Fourth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders.” The Congress was held in the summer of 1970 and involved over a thousand registered participants from eight nations around the world.  I was responsible for coordinating all Departments, Divisions and Sections of the United Nations with the Congress.” 

Kelly also found himself caught up in the intrigues of the United Nations. He had made many friends among the Russians who worked for him and frequently visited their Mission. This fact was brought to the attention of J. Edgar Hoover who put in a request with the State Department to employ Kelly as an undercover agent for the FBI reporting directly to the chief of Russian Espionage. But before the offer could be made Kelly was making plans to leave the United Nations and enter the academic world.

As Kelly explains the change taking place:

“It was an offer I could not pass up. One that would be so much more gratifying than any job I had ever undertaken. The University of Delaware, after an exhaustive search had selected me to head a brand new Criminal Justice Department. At long last I would find my final niche in life, a calling that would permit me to read, write and above all teach.”

And that is exactly what Kelly would do at the University of Delaware for the next 33 years. A time that just had to be the best years of his professional life, a life that ended at the age of 95.

Professor Kelly’s style of teaching in 1971 would be best described as “The Dialectic.” The Criminal Justice department incorporated classroom lectures, round table discussion with students, law enforcement from local police agencies and Police departments, prosecutors, medical examiners and victims. With the assistance of the UD Media department Professor Kelly would contact key individuals directly involved in specific crimes. Professor Kelly believed that his students should experience crime and the justice system firsthand, face to face with the witnesses at times the criminal. This style of teaching was intended to expose his students to the witnesses, police investigators, victims and prosecutors. Professor Kelly would bring experts from around the world to discuss their cases directly with the CJ students. Students experienced the event with practical interaction with police agencies, the FBI, Secret Service and Delaware’s Correction Department. Professor Kelly led numerous trips to Great Britton, Dallas, New York and any place that could expose the students to the scene of the crime. Many of his site visits were locations where a murder changed the course of history and impacted witnesses and victims. Going directly to the evidence and seeing firsthand the scene of the crime.

“Students constitute one of the key elements that enter into the quality of learning that takes place in a university. It is not simply a question of “meeting the right people” but, more than this, the collision of ideas that takes place when eager young minds confront one another, students can teach each other about life. The dialectic encourages them to do this.  

Of all the contacts that a scholar makes with art, poetry, history and philosophy none keeps his intellectual muscles as pliant and his academic armor as polished as a steady confrontation with young, questioning minds. The dialectic is such a reciprocal process. It permits the teacher to view learning as a cooperative endeavor and to respond to demands for relevance.  

In the dialectic the teacher is given the opportunity to see the student in action. They face one another as a cluster of individuals grouped about a roundtable. The roundtable, while not essential for a dialectic, is the most effective means in terms of emotional and intellectual exchange. It represents in form and function the perfect expression of a democracy.  

The dialectic gives him the opportunity to understand students whose education and life style may not be the same as his own. The dialectic serves as an effective device for permitting students to teach their teacher. A student requires the living example of a teacher who is always learning”.  

Throughout the thirty-two years of teaching at the University of Delaware, Professor Kelly took his students on a guided tour of murder trials, crime scenes and various training facilities such as the FBI academy. His courses centered on how a basic crime altered the future. How acts of murder, kidnapping and other crimes started wars and changed the world. From the assassination of Julis Ceaser to Rosenberg trial, Linberg kidnapping and the assassination of world leaders that changed to path of history. Many of his courses dealt with the John F. Kennedy assassination and students traveled to Dallas and met with retired local police, Secrete Service and other Federal agents that were at the scene where the events surrounding the Kennedy Assassination were inspected. Many of the witnesses spent days with Dr. Kelly’s students walking the path to and from the School Book Depository and the arrest of the gunman.

A visitation for family and friends will be held from 1 pm until 2 pm on Saturday, February 22, 2025, at Spicer-Mullikin Funeral Home, 121 West Park Place, Newark, DE, where a funeral service will begin at 2 pm. Interment will follow in Pencader Cemetery, Glasgow, DE.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Dr. Kelly’s memory to the Pencader Cemetery Association, P.O. Box 444, Bear, DE 19701.