It was announced on Monday that Robert K. Durkee will be stepping down as Princeton University’s vice president for public affairs, a role he has held since 1978, but he will remain in the position of vice president and secretary of the University.

In sharing a few reflections on his career so far, Mr. Durkee, who arrived at Princeton as a student in 1965, graduated in 1969, and began working in the University president’s office as assistant to the president in 1972, chose to focus “on my engagement on behalf of the university with the communities in which it is located.”

Mr. Durkee, who as VP for public affairs, is empowered to speak for the University and has done so on many occasions in Princeton, Washington D.C., and elsewhere, noted that “The relationship between the University and the town, or the towns, because our relationships with our other local communities have also been very important to me, has always been one of my highest priorities.”

Recalling his more than half century in Princeton, Mr. Durkee, contacted by email while attending meetings in Washington D.C., pointed out, “I have three daughters who benefited greatly from its public schools and all the other opportunities this town offers. At one point I was an elder of Nassau Presbyterian Church. I have played in the town softball league for over 30 years (for about a decade I ran a team called El Tigre) and I have played in its platform tennis league for 40 years; I’m also one of only two people to have competed in every one of the 10K races the hospital used to sponsor. I have also served on the board of McCarter Theatre for more than 30 years.”

Mr. Durkee went on to discuss his involvement in local community issues, citing his exceptional University partners — Bud Vivian, Karen Jezierny, Pam Hersh, and Kristin Appelget — in overseeing University-community relations. “I have enjoyed working with a broad range of mayors and other elected officials, planning board members, community leaders, and many others who care deeply about this town and its people.”

Citing the University’s “significant financial contributions” to the community over the past 40 years, including more than $3 million this year, as the largest taxpayer in the community, he noted ongoing capital contributions that have benefited the schools, the public library, the Arts Council, the Garden Theatre, affordable housing, and many other community organizations and shared goals.

Mr. Durkee also highlighted the University’s collaboration with the town on planning and zoning issues, including the development adjacent to Murray Place, the Butler Tract, and “the lively discussions about the Arts and Transit neighborhood that have resulted in a new train station and Wawa, better traffic flow along Alexander Street, one new restaurant and another ready to open any day now, and a gorgeous and vibrant home for the Lewis Center for the Arts that will open next fall.”

Mr. Durkee will remain as vice president for public affairs until his successor in that role is named, and even then, as vice president and secretary, he will continue to work on many of the issues he has been working on over the years.

President Christopher L. Eisgruber will lead a national search for a vice president of communications and public affairs who will oversee the offices that Mr. Durkee has supervised in his public affairs role: Communications, Government Affairs (headquartered in Washington, D.C.), Community and Regional Affairs, and Public Affairs (which focuses primarily on state-related issues).

“I am proud of the work of all these offices, and I am pleased to have been able to work closely with each of them over these past four decades,” Mr. Durkee said. “One of the many virtues of Princeton’s relatively small size and centralized administrative structure is that even the most senior officers are able to work directly with the offices they oversee.”

Mr. Durkee went on to reflect on some of the many different facets of his public affairs job. “One of my favorite aspects has been the broad range of things I get to do and the surprises — both welcome and unwelcome — that each day brings,” he said. “I could go on at length about work I have been able to do with the media both on and off campus, in Washington, in Trenton, and until recently in overseeing the university’s engagement with its 91,000 alumni. In each of these areas I have fond memories and accomplishments I look back on with pride.”

Stepping down for Mr. Durkee doesn’t exactly sound like stepping down. “While I look forward to scaling back, I also look forward to continuing to be very much involved as we seek to carry out the priorities of the strategic planning framework the university adopted a year ago and the campus planning framework that we are working hard to complete by next fall,” he explained. “The University has grown a lot over these 45 years in size, scope, and diversity measured in many ways, but it also has remained true to its mission and its core values, and I take great pleasure in having been able to communicate with the University’s many publics about both the continuity and the change.”