Russ Mobley

Russell G. Mobley, known as Russ Mobley (born November 18, 1933), is a politician and educator based in Kentucky, where he retired as an associate professor of theatre arts.

Elected to political office in 2000, he served as a Republican member of the Kentucky House of Representatives (2001 to 2009) from District 51 (Taylor and Adair counties) in the south central portion of the state.

Early life, education, and career

Mobley holds Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from the University of Kentucky in Lexington. He served in the United States Air Force from 1951 to 1955.

Career

Mobley was an associate professor of theatre arts at Campbellsville University in Campbellsville, the seat and largest community of Taylor County. It is about 83 miles southwest of Lexington. Until 2014, the university was affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention.

Mobley taught there from 1971 until his retirement in 2005, directing more than 100 student plays and musicals. His first production was the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.^[1] He also produced a 1987 adaptation of the musical Fiddler on the Roof.

Mobley was long interested in politics. In the mid-1970s, he made an unsuccessful race for the United States House of Representatives from Kentucky's 6th Congressional District, based in Lexington. In 1981, he ran unsuccessfully in the Republican primary for the District 16 seat in the Kentucky State Senate. He was defeated by the incumbent Doug Moseley, a United Methodist minister.

In his last years of teaching, Mobley re-entered electoral politics. He was elected to the state house in 2000, and served four two-year terms until 2009. He was not a candidate in 2008 for a fifth term. The Republican nominee, John "Bam" Carney, also an educator, was elected and still holds the seat.

Mobley was elected to the Kentucky House in 2000. He was unopposed in the Republican primary when the two-term incumbent, Ricky Lee Cox (born 1958), did not seek reelection. In the general election, Mobley defeated the Democrat Russell Montgomery by 1,305 votes. (Montgomery has since switched parties.) He won by an even larger margin in 2002, when he defeated the Democrat Henry "Butch" Wheatley by 2,417 ballots. Mobley was reelected in 2004 and 2006 in his predominantly Republican district.

He served on the House Labor and Industry, Transportation, and Education committees. One of Mobley's legislative priorities was the widening of Kentucky State Highways 210 and 55, an $18.7 million project announced by then Governor Ernie Fletcher. The widening project in Taylor County was part of the larger Heartland Parkway, which will ultimately connect the existing Cumberland and the Blue Grass parkways.

Mobley is considered very conservative: he supported the right to life and endorsed the anti-abortion legislator Stan Lee, the unsuccessful Republican nominee for Attorney General of Kentucky in the November 6, 2007, general election. Mobley was a strong supporter of former Governor Fletcher, whom he described as "a man who keeps his promises." He backed English as the official language in the state and opposed same-sex marriages.

Marriage and family

Mobley and his wife, Carole M. Mobley (b. 1938), a pharmacist, have three sons and two daughters: twins Jeffrey Mobley (b. September 21, 1957), an attorney in Nashville, Tennessee; and Gregory Mobley, a professor of Old Testament at Andover Newton Theological School in Newton, Massachusetts. Other children are Joel Mobley (b. 1966), an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Mississippi in Oxford; Stephanie M. Woodie, an instructor at Berea College in Berea, Kentucky; and Suzanne M. Bennett, a reading educator in the Green County School District. She is married to Joel Bennett. Gregory Mobley is the coauthor of The Birth of Satan: Tracing the Devil's Biblical Roots.

Civic life

Mobley is a former member of Rotary International. He is a longtime member of the Campbellsville Baptist Church.

Legacy and honors

In 2011, the Campbellsville University theater, in the Alumni Building, was named in Mobley's honor. CU President Michael V. Carter, at the dedication ceremonies, said that Mobley "leaves a great legacy in this place."^[1]

References