William H. Harris, the former Alabama State University president who came out of retirement twice to lead the university, died Friday. He was 79.
Harris joined ASU as president in 1994, bringing 28 years of higher education experience to the university. He retired for the first time in 2000, but returned to work in 2005 as interim president of Fort Valley State University, where he served until 2006.
In 2008, he again left retirement to serve as interim president of Texas College and returned to ASU as interim president the same year. A year later, he regained his status as full president of ASU and remained on the job until September 2012 when he stepped aside to make way for former ASU President Joseph Silver.
But when the university’s board of trustees abruptly approved a settlement agreement that secured Silver’s resignation after just 13 weeks on the job, Harris was again called upon to serve as interim president. His third and final retirement in 2014 ushered in the university’s first female president, Gwendolyn Boyd.
Harris had a vision of a comprehensive regional university following Knight v. State of Alabama, according to the university’s library. The nearly 30-year federal court case challenged policies of the state’s colleges and universities on the grounds that they were racially discriminatory.
With the help of the Knight remedial decree, Harris introduced high-demand programs, established the university’s first major endowment and generated a 10.5% leap in minority enrollment, according to ASU.
“The University extends its deepest condolences to President Harris’s wife, former First Lady Wanda Harris, his son, Dr. William J. Harris; and his family, friends, former employees, alumni and the myriad people whom he impacted,” said ASU President Quinton T. Ross, Jr.
Harris, a resident of Hilton Head, South Carolina, and a native of south Georgia, was married to his wife for over 50 years.
He earned his bachelor’s degree at Paine College in Georgia and attended Indiana University to obtain his M.A. and Ph.D. He received the Distinguished Alumni Service Award from Indiana University in 1991. In 1978-1979, Harris was a Fulbright professor and visiting professor of history at the University of Hamburg in Germany.
The family said final arrangements are pending and will be shared once finalized.