Penn State Alumni Association chief William Rothwell has been named vice president for development and alumni at the University of Louisville.

Rothwell, assistant vice president and executive director of the alumni program since 1983, was appointed by the University of Louisville's board of trustees Monday.

Donald Swain, UL's president and chairman of the committee which selected Rothwell, said, "I'm eager to have Bill Rothwell join us. He will give us a big jolt of energy and enthusiasm. In fact, he has extraordinary enthusiasm.

"He will be a major asset and I'm delighted at his appointment."

The Penn State Alumni Association is currently the second largest in the nation and has about 106,000 members, nearly double the 58,000 who belonged when Rothwell took charge. A successor to Rothwell has not been named.

For the past three years, the alumni association was awarded the best alumni program in the nation by the Council for the Advancment and Support of Education. This is the first time the council has given the award to the same alumni association for three consecutive years.

University President Bryce Jordan said in a prepared statement, "Bill Rothwell has been a key player on an aggressive institutional advancement team that has attracted unprecedented visibility and financial resources for Penn State."

Rothwell is scheduled to assume his new position on or around April 1. Robert Klein, president of the association, said Tuesday, "Bill Rothwell took the Penn State Alumni Association to new heights as its executive director the last five-plus years. He was the driving force that earned us several CASE awards, making us the number one alumni association in the United States."

Rothwell served as the executive director of the University of New Hampshire's alumni association for five years before coming to Penn State. He also has worked on the faculty at the University of North Dakota and the University of Wisconsin.