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The Daily Tar Heel

Former UNC administrator dies at 59

Elson Floyd was a national leader in higher education

Floyd died at a Washington hospital Saturday at age 59 after suffering complications due to colon cancer. Floyd became president of Washington State University in 2007. Earlier this month, he took a medical leave of absence, but many expected him to return to his position.

Born in segregated Henderson, N.C., Floyd’s appreciation for education came from his meager beginnings.

Floyd’s mother, Dorothy Floyd, said they couldn’t afford paper when he was growing up, so her son did his homework in the sand.

Neither of Floyd’s parents graduated high school, but his mother pushed him and his three brothers to work hard in school.

“I never had the education he had,” Dorothy Floyd said. “But it was important to me that my sons were able to have these opportunities.”

He completed his undergraduate and graduate work at UNC, where he earned a doctorate in higher and adult education.

In his time at UNC, his friend and classmate, Allen Johnson, said Floyd’s passion for education was clear.

“He saw education as a gateway to a better life and to greater possibilities in life,” Johnson said. “I think he saw it as something that could not only make a difference in your life, but he saw it as a way of empowering yourself to help others.”

Floyd joined the UNC administration in the 1970s. He served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. He was the assistant vice president for student services in the UNC system office for two years.

After moving to Washington in the early 1990s, he returned to UNC as executive vice chancellor in 1995.

Vice Chancellor Winston Crisp, who was a dean in the law school when Floyd was executive vice chancellor, said Floyd mentored him and other administrators.

Floyd went on to become the first African-American president of the University of Missouri system from 2003 to 2007.

Floyd was able to navigate the political landscape of the University system with grace.

“I think if you were to ask any of his classmates if Elson would do really well, all of us would have said yes,” Johnson said. “But if you had asked us if we could see him as possibly a university president, even someone whose name would be mentioned as chancellor at UNC-Chapel Hill, I’d say he’s too nice for that.”

Friends and colleagues remember Floyd as a kind and soft-spoken man.

“He made you want to be a better person,” said Crisp. “You wanted to be like him.”

Floyd’s personality allowed him to connect to students and charm his colleagues.

“I never remember him either receiving or speaking an ill word of anyone,” Johnson said. “He was someone that everyone thought well of. I don’t know that I ever saw him angry. He just didn’t have that kind of personality.”

university@dailytarheel.com

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