Lattie F. Coor Jr., the 15th president of Arizona State University whose tenure achieved major milestones for ASU as a research institution, died Thursday evening at age 89.
“ASU would not be the institution it is today without Lattie Coor’s vision, leadership and commitment to the community,” ASU President Michael M. Crow said.
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“Our university’s advancements in research growth, semiconductor R&D, workforce development, community partnerships, public health and service to learners across Arizona and around the globe — is all rooted in Lattie’s foresight and dedication to what ASU could become. With his passing, the university and the state have lost a grand champion, and Sybil and I have lost a dear friend and colleague.”
Coor almost didn’t take the job.
Before he became president of ASU in 1990, he held the same post at the University of Vermont for nearly 14 years. In a 2018 interview for the Arizona Historymakers Project, Coor admitted, “I really did not intend to take another presidency. My thinking … was that it was about time for me to start doing something else.”
His decision to reconsider was a turning point for ASU. When Crow dedicated the five-story Lattie F. Coor Hall on ASU’s Tempe campus in 2004, he said, “This building’s grand stature lives up to its namesake. Lattie Coor elevated the university’s status as a major research institution with high-quality academics and a diverse student body.”
Part of the legacy of Coor’s 12-year tenure is evident in the need to specify ASU’s Tempe campus — or the West Valley, Polytechnic or Downtown Phoenix campuses. In his 1990 inaugural address, Coor stated, “Arizona State University is now ready to take that great step, one that I believe will mark the beginning of a new era. We are ready to move ASU forward as a world-class university functioning in a multi-campus setting.”
It was his vision for ASU’s future that brought Coor back to his hometown, where he was born in 1936 to schoolteacher parents. His father had earned his teaching degree from ASU, then named Tempe State Teachers College. Lattie Coor Jr. was salutatorian of his graduating class at Litchfield High School, where his favorite subjects were history and social science.
“I was intrigued by the window it gave into the world,” he said in a 2006 interview for the Living History Video Project by the ASU Retirees Association.
Coor majored in social science at Arizona State College at Flagstaff, now Northern Arizona University, planning on a law degree, and possibly a political career, until his sophomore year and what he called his “burning bush” moment. Coor recalled in his 2006 interview for the ASU Retirees Association being “so moved by the power of intellectual exploration that I absolutely, completely planned to be a faculty member.”
Coor went to Washington University in St. Louis for his master’s degree and PhD. He became assistant to the chancellor, coordinating an initiative to assist minority students from the St. Louis area in entering the nearly all-white university with the help of Saturday seminars and preparatory classes. He advanced through several academic positions to become vice chancellor, before being recruited by the University of Vermont for a university presidency of his own.
During Coor’s tenure at ASU, the university was granted Research 1 status by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching — a major milestone in its evolution that cleared the way for rapid advancement. The university’s endowment grew tenfold, and his full-throated dedication to the Campaign for Leadership that began in 1995 helped the university raise $560 million; the goal had been $300 million.
In addition to the university’s hitting several philanthropic milestones during Coor’s tenure, he and his wife, Elva, supported several ASU colleges, programs and causes, including Barrett, The Honors College; Arizona PBS; Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions; ASU Library; Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication; The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts; ASU Athletics; ASU Gammage; ASU Alumni Association; ASU President’s Club; and ASU Women and Philanthropy.
“Lattie recognized the significant role private support plays in helping students, advancing research and extending the university’s geographic footprint,” said Gretchen Buhlig, CEO of the ASU Foundation for a New American University. “He and Elva touched a lot of lives through their generosity over the years.”
When he retired from ASU in 2002, Coor founded the Center for the Future of Arizona, a nonprofit he called a “do tank” rather than a think tank. “Drawing on policy,” Coor said at the time, “we will do very deep research and problem definition but work toward solutions that will be measurable.”
It was another example of his dedication to the state he returned to and its people.
“When Michael and I came to Arizona, Lattie and Elva were warm and welcoming and became great friends,” said Sybil Francis, president and chief executive officer of the Center for the Future of Arizona and the wife of Crow.
“Lattie’s passion and commitment to his home state of Arizona inspired his idea for the Center for the Future of Arizona. I am proud to have worked side by side with him since 2002 in building the center into the visionary and impactful organization it has become, one that will continue to drive a stronger and brighter future for our state. Lattie’s legacy will be felt for generations of Arizonans to come.”
