Coin flip charted career path for director of Wright State Research Institute

After Mary and Ryan Fendley graduated from Indiana University, they were faced with a career decision that confronts many couples – whose career to follow first.

So the Fendleys did the only fair thing – they flipped a coin.

That coin flip – which Mary won – sent her to graduate school at Wright State University. Ryan followed her to Dayton, got a job and later obtained his MBA in finance from Wright State.

Today, Mary Fendley, Ph.D., is an assistant research professor in the College of Engineering and Computer Science. Ryan is director of the Wright State Research Institute, the university’s research arm that marshals resources to investigate everything from new technologies to identify terror suspects to strategies for minimizing combat fatigue.

“The university provided a path for a 25-year-old who didn’t really know what he wanted to do for the rest of his life,” Ryan Fendley said.

Fendley’s path to the institute was a long and twisting one.

He was born in Fort Wayne, Ind.: “My father was there in the Blizzard of ’78, and he swore up and down that if he could dig us out, we were moving.” He did, and the family moved to Florida. Then it was on to Fairfax, Va., when Fendley’s electrical engineer father took a job with Magnavox, and back to Fort Wayne to again follow his father’s career.

Following high school, Ryan enrolled at Indiana University and took a job cutting beef to pay for his education, often working up to 40 hours a week.

After he and Mary graduated and married, there was the fateful coin flip. Wright State offered programs Mary wanted, and the couple had friends and family in the area. A trip to campus ensued.

“When we came and visited, it was easy. It was a no-brainer,” said Fendley.

So Mary went to Wright State, and Ryan went to work. After a time, Ryan began shopping for schools where he could pursue his master’s degree.

One day he was attending a Wright State basketball game when then-President Kim Goldenberg approached him and struck up a conversation. Goldenberg didn’t identify himself as the president, and Fendley had no idea who he was.

“He took a half an hour with me to make an individual sales pitch on why getting the Wright State MBA was the best thing I could do,” Fendley said. “The sales job was great, and everything that he said was accurate. Where else are you going to get that?”

So Fendley, who was doing business development for a credit union, began work on his MBA. A chance meeting at a dinner party with S. Narayanan, Ph.D., currently dean of the College Engineering and Computer Science, led to a job at Wright State.

The two men later came up with the idea for the Wright State Research Institute, scratching out the initial plan on a coffee shop napkin.

“It is so unique. It is so innovative in how it’s been structured,” Fendley said.

The institute is designed to solve problems for businesses by connecting them to Wright State’s vast reservoir of researchers, scientists and resources. Teams of experts tailor-made to quickly attack the issue are assembled and deployed.

In December, an institute-led consortium was awarded Air Force contracts of up to $6.4 million for research designed to improve human performance in dealing with terrorist threats, combat fatigue and other defense issues.

“Every day is an adventure. No doubt about it. It’s a challenge, but it’s an incredibly rewarding one,” Fendley said. “One of the things I enjoy the most is being able to go out into the community and to share the excellence that exists at Wright State. For whatever reason, we are the hidden gem in this region.”