SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - The longest serving president in the history of Gonzaga University has died.
The Rev. Bernard J. Coughlin, who is credited with saving the Spokane, Washington, institution from financial collapse, died Tuesday at 97.
The school announced that Coughlin arrived at Gonzaga in 1974, when the university was in deep financial trouble, and served as president until 1996. During that time he established a growing endowment for the university and oversaw numerous building projects that modernized Gonzaga’s campus.
Coughlin helped set the stage for the rise of the basketball program, which burst onto the national scene in 1999 with its first Elite Eight appearance.
Coughlin became the university’s first and only chancellor after he stepped down as president, and stayed in that role until 2016. He served the university for a total of 42 years.
He was moved to Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos, California, where he died Tuesday.
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