Washington Post Washington, DC February 18, 1999 GWU's Robert K. Faris Dies at 81 Director of Athletics for 27 Years Robert K. "Bob" Faris, 81, an all-American basketball player at George Washington University who later served 27 years as the school's director of athletics, died of heart ailments Feb. 14 at Methodist Hospital in Omaha. Mr. Faris was named GWU's director of athletics in 1955, and he retired in 1982. His leadership of the athletic department included the 1976 opening of the Smith Center, a $6.6 million sports facility that included basketball, handball and squash courts; a gymnastics and weightlifting room; a swimming pool; sauna and steam baths; office space; classrooms; and training rooms. In 1957, the GWU football team beat Texas Western in the Sun Bowl, but 10 years later, varsity football was dropped from the university's athletic program. There was no stadium or practice field, and football had become too expensive. During much of Mr. Faris's tenure as athletic director, GWU competed in the Southern Conference, winning 19 championship titles in various sports. Mr. Faris was born and raised in Fremont, Neb. He came to GWU on a football scholarship but won all-American honors in basketball in 1939. He also played tennis at GWU. After graduating in 1939, Mr. Faris worked briefly for the FBI, then taught school and coached in Iowa and Colorado. During World War II, he served in the Navy in the South Pacific, then was a teacher and coach at Fremont High School. He was freshman football coach at the University of Nebraska before he became director of athletics at GWU. Mr. Faris, a former McLean resident, moved to Naples, Fla., in 1987. In 1997, he returned to Fremont. He was a former deacon at Lewensville Presbyterian Church in McLean, a member of Riverbend Country Club in Great Falls and a member of the GWU Hall of Fame. His wife of 52 years, Nadine Nash Faris, died in 1993. Survivors include his wife, Dorothy "Billie" Faris of Fremont; a daughter from his first marriage, Lynn Mullins of Parker, Colo.; three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. A son, Robert K. Faris Jr., died in an auto accident in 1967.