John L. Crompton is Distinguished Professor of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences at Texas A&M University. He received his basic training in England. His undergraduate work was in physical education and geography at Loughborough College. After teaching high school for a year, he attended the University of Illinois where he completed an M.S. degree in Recreation and Park Administration in 1968. In 1970, he was awarded another M.S. degree from Loughborough University of Technology majoring in Business Administration.
In 1970, he joined Loughborough Recreation Planning Consultants as their first full-time employee. When he left as managing direction in 1974, LRPC had developed into the largest consulting firm in the United Kingdom specializing in recreation and tourism, with a full-time staff of twenty-five which was supplemented by a number of part-time associate consultants.
In 1974, Dr. Crompton came to Texas A&M University. He received his doctorate in Recreation Resourced Development in 1977. For some years he taught graduate and undergraduate courses in both the Department of Recreation and Parks and the Department of Marketing at Texas A&M University, but he now teaches exclusively in the Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences.
Dr. Crompton's primary interests are in the areas of marketing and financing public leisure and tourism services. He is author or co-author of seven books and a substantial number of articles and monographs which have been published in the recreation, tourism, sport and marketing fields.
Dr. Crompton has conducted numerous workshops on Marketing and/or Financing Leisure Services. He has lectured or conducted workshops in a number of foreign countries and has delivered keynote addresses at the Annual National Park and Recreation Conferences in Great Britain, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and Japan.
He is a past recipient of the National Park Foundation's Cornelius Amory Pugsley award for outstanding national contributions to parks and conservation; the National Recreation and Park Association's (NRPA) National Literary Award; the NRPA's Roosevelt Award for outstanding research; the Distinguished Colleague Award and the Distinguished Teaching Award of the Society of Park and Recreation Educators; and the Travel and Tourism Research Association's Travel Research Award. He has received the Vice-Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching at Texas A&M, and the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station's Faculty Fellow Award for exceptional research contributions. He is a past president of four professional bodies: the Texas Recreation and Parks Society; the American Academy of Park and Recreation Administration; the Society of Park and Recreation Educators and the Academy of Leisure Sciences. He is currently a member of the NRPA's Board of Trustees, and chair of the NRPA Southwest Regional Council.