ORONO — Adrie H. Nab, assistant vice president for public affairs at the University of Maine, has been named vice president for university relations at Ohio University in Athens.

Nab has headed the UM Public Affairs Department since November 1988 and will begin his new duties Aug. 1 at the school of 26,000 students, 18,000 of whom are on the Athens campus and 8,000 on five regional campuses.

He will work on alumni, community and federal government relations, news services and media relations, institutional marketing, publications, special events, and the Ohio University Museum of American Art projected to open in 1994.

Nab holds a master’s degree in educational management from Harvard University and worked with Mobil Oil Corp. before coming to UM. He has 14 years of experience in public-relations management and administration in U.S. higher education. He is a native of the Netherlands and served in the Royal Dutch Marine Corps as a communications specialist before moving to the United States in 1962.

Frederick E. Hutchinson, UM president, said that Nab’s leaving was a deep loss to the university. “He has brought great improvement in the coordination of our communication activities,” Hutchinson said. Nab restructured and redirected the Department of Public Affairs into a broad communications unit that includes radio and television production, news services and media relations, graphic art and design, publications and print. He also started a weekly magazine and a monthly television magazine show hosted by alumni.

Nab helped to establish contacts in Bulgaria and paved the way for UM exchange programs and the 1991 opening of the American University in Bulgaria. The first American-style university in Eastern Europe is being developed with planning help from UM, including design and monitoring of academic programs that will lead to a UM-accredited degree.

Nab, his wife, Michaelean Howatt-Nab, and their three children, will move to Athens in July.

“I value and have enjoyed my experiences, the campus, my job and colleagues here at the University of Maine,” Nab said.

Hutchinson will decide on Nab’s replacement during the next few weeks.