Former Clemson president dies

Tools

Former Clemson president dies

Story Published: Dec 4, 2008 at 10:08 PM EDT

Story Updated: Dec 4, 2008 at 10:08 PM EDT

CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) - Robert Cook Edwards, Clemson University's
longest serving president who oversaw the enrollment of the
school's first black student, has died. He was 94.

University officials say Edwards had been in declining health
for a year before he died on Thursday.

Edwards was president from 1958 to 1979 _ a tenure that included
the admission of Harvey Gantt after a years-long court battle to
block integration. An architect and former mayor of Charlotte,
N.C., Gantt said he credits Edwards' leadership with the lack of
violence when he enrolled in Clemson in 1963.

A native of Fountain Inn, Edwards was just the second Clemson
graduate to serve as president. He graduated in 1933 and had a
successful career in textiles before returning to the college as a
vice president for development in 1956.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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