Bryce Jordan, Penn State’s president from 1983 to 1990, died at the age of 91 on Tuesday in Austin, Texas.
As Penn State’s 14th president, Jordan oversaw the university’s first major fundraising campaign and led its entry into the Big Ten Conference.
‘Bryce Jordan’s positive impact and presence at Penn State has been profound and lasting,’ current Penn State president Eric Barron, who was a faculty member during Jordan’s tenure, said in a statement. ‘He played a critical role in advancing the University’s development as national leader in research; oversaw the launch the University’s first fundraising campaign focused on raising funding for scholarships, endowed positions and other improvements; and played a leading role in Penn State’s entry into the Big Ten, joining a group of the world’s elite institutions of higher education. We are truly lucky as an institution to have had the benefit of Bryce Jordan’s leadership and presence in our community, and he will be missed.”
Under his watch, Penn State raised $352 million for scholarships, faculty positions and other academic areas in its first ever major fundraising campaign starting in 1986.
Thanks in large part to Jordan’s efforts, Penn State was invited in 1989 to join the Big Ten as the conference’s 11th member, as well as its related academic consortium,the Committee on Institutional Cooperation.
“We are proud of what Penn State represents in the academic and athletic communities,” Jordan said when the Penn Stat was admitted to the Big Ten, according to a university news release. “Conference membership provides us with an opportunity to enhance our strong reputation as an educational institution of the first order and as a major player in intercollegiate athletics.”
He led the efforts to build what is now Innovation Park as well as the arena that now bears his name, the Bryce Jordan Center. During his tenure Penn State also increased its efforts to recruit and retain diverse students, faculty and staff, and the university divested stock in companies conducting business in South Africa during apartheid.
Born Sept. 22, 1924 in Clovis, N.M. and raised in Abilene, Texas, Jordan served in the U.S. Army’s Air Corps from 1942-46. He went on to receive bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from the University of Texas and a doctorate in historical musicology from the University of North Carolina.
Jordan held faculty posts at the University of Maryland, University of Kentucky and Texas. In 1971 he was named the first president of the University of Texas at Dallas, and 10 years later became executive vice chancellor for the University of Texas System.
