By most measures, Ira Jackson, dean of the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University, considered his tenure a success. Under his watch, the school had grown its enrollment by 25 percent, introduced new programs and degrees, and celebrated the centennial of its namesake, management guru Peter Drucker.

But family issues weighed on Jackson, a Boston native with strong ties to New England. His wife, Martha White Jackson, was homesick, and her parents, who live in Boston’s South Side, had recently fallen ill.

So after two months of discussions with Joseph C. Hough, the university’s interim president, Jackson decided to resign last week. He plans to take a sabbatical through the end of 2010, when his job as dean will officially end.

“Joe and I both agreed that if I feel like I’m being pulled back east now, and I feel I’ve achieved what I set out to do, then perhaps it was best to step down this year,” Jackson said in an interview with the Business Journal.

Jackson’s duties will be divided until his term ends Dec. 31. Leslie Negritto will serve as the school’s administrative dean; Hideki Yamawaki will become academic dean.

Jackson came to the Drucker School in 2006 after stints as an aide to the mayors of Newark, N.J., and Boston, and senior associate dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Since then, he’s boosted the school’s enrollment, introduced a series of global Drucker forums and helped roll out academic programs.

“He’s done a remarkable job, revitalizing the school,” Hough said.

Jackson said his wife will move back to Boston soon to be with her family but that he plans to stay at school at least through the spring, when he will teach a course on chief executive leadership. He also will speak at forums around the world on behalf of the school and help with a fundraising program.

The school has not yet announced a search committee for Jackson’s successor. Hough said the board of trustees would likely select a permanent president before they began to search for a new dean of the Drucker School. He said a new president should be in place this summer.