Ursinus' John R. Strassburger, 68

John R. Strassburger, 68, president of Ursinus College in Collegeville from 1995 until June, died of metastasized prostate cancer Wednesday, Sept. 22, at Memorial Sloane-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

Ursinus saw dramatic growth and improved prestige as a model liberal-arts institution under his leadership.

Dr. Strassburger added majors in art, dance, and theater; hired more faculty; built more buildings; and increased enrollment from 1,100 when he began to 1,700.

"He moved that school from a quiet liberal-arts college to one well-known not only in the region but all over," interim president John E.F. Corson said in a phone interview.

Now, Corson said, "it is a place populated by kids who could go anywhere."

Not only did Dr. Strassburger expand the curriculum and faculty, he said, but also "it was the way he could interact with students" as he walked across campus, many of whom "he knew by name and what they were doing, in a way that was astonishing."

A daughter, Trudy, said "he considered his greatest achievement helping to make Ursinus College a place [where] students could be free to learn."

In 2008-09, he was board chair of the Council of Independent Colleges, which represents more than 600 such institutions across the nation.

During Dr. Strassburger's years at Ursinus, Corson said, a new performing arts center and two new student residences were built. A new wing on the Berman Museum of Art was another bricks-and-mortar accomplishment.

Born in Sheboygan, Wis., Dr. Strassburger worked summers as a steelworker and a machinist before earning a bachelor's degree in American history at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, in 1964, and a master's degree in history at Cambridge University in 1966.

He earned his doctorate in early American history at Princeton University in 1976 and held a 2002 honorary doctor of humane letters from Tohoku Gakuin University in Sendai, Japan.

In 1970, Dr. Strassburger joined the history faculty at Hiram (Ohio) College, where he became director of the Center for Regional Studies and codirector of the Hiram in Dublin program before leaving in 1982.

At the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington, where he earned a distinguished service award, he was acting assistant director and program officer for education programs from 1982 to 1984.

Dr. Strassburger moved to Galesburg, Ill., and from 1984 to 1994 was history professor, dean, and executive vice president at Knox College there.

During his career, he was a board member of the American Academic Leadership Institute, the American Council on Education, and the Lenfest Foundation.

His commentaries were published in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Besides his daughter Trudy, Dr. Strassburger is survived by his wife, Gertrude; another daughter, Sarah; a brother, a sister; and two grandchildren.

A memorial service was set for 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 26, at Bomberger Hall on the Ursinus campus, with a reception to follow at the Berman Museum on campus.