Bill Powers, UT's president for nearly a decade, dies at 72
Former University of Texas President Bill Powers, whose leadership of the flagship campus in Austin was long, accomplished and periodically controversial, died Sunday morning at Dell Seton Medical Center at UT. He was 72.
His death was announced by the university. The cause was complications from a fall and oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy, a rare, adult-onset muscle disorder, the university said.
Powers had been hospitalized in September after falling outside the School of Law, his intellectual home for more than 40 years. Rehabilitation and additional hospitalizations followed. He also was hospitalized in 2011 with a pulmonary embolism, a sudden blockage of a lung artery; he was treated with blood thinners and recovered.
Powers was the second-longest-serving president in UT history, holding the post for more than nine years until he stepped down in June 2015 to return to the Law School, where he previously had been dean. Under his watch as president, UT overhauled the undergraduate curriculum; completed an eight-year fundraising campaign that netted $3.1 billion; launched the ESPN-owned Longhorn Network in a deal giving the campus $300 million over 20 years; and collaborated with local, state and UT System leaders to establish the Dell Medical School.
Read more: https://www.statesman.com/news/20190310/bill-powers-uts-president-for-nearly-decade-dies-at-72