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DEL.ICIO.USFormer Georgia Tech President Pat Crecine Passes Away
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
J. Patrick Crecine, a controversial yet ground-breaking president of Georgia Tech from August, 1987 to January, 1994, passed away from colon cancer on Monday.
Bill Todd, president of the Georgia Cancer Coalition and incoming chairman of Georgia Tech’s Alumni Association, emailed me about Crecine’s death saying it would be of interest to many of you.
Todd, who was the founding president of the Georgia Research Alliance, said Crecine was instrumental in setting up the consortium that helped tear down walls between the state’s major educational institutions.
During his tenure at Tech, Crecine also recognized the potential of Atlanta winning the 1996 Olympic Games, and he was able to place Georgia Tech in the center of the competition.
Crecine, 68, also implemented several academic reforms at Georgia Tech, but his style rubbed many people the wrong way.
Soon after he took the job as Georgia Tech’s President in 1994, Wayne Clough said he couldn’t pass judgment on Crecine’s administration, “but I was impressed by the great progress the institution had made in recent years.”
This past March, Clough sent an email to his associates, saying he had distressing news about Crecine:
“Pat was diagnosed last year with colon cancer and learned the cancer had spread to his liver. He has been undergoing chemotherapy in hopes of shrinking the tumors. Recently, however, he learned that the cancer has continued to metastasize to other parts of his body and his condition is inoperable.”
Todd, who borrowed a sentiment expressed by the late Larry Gellerstedt Jr., one of GRA’s first chairmen, said of Crecine: “He was clearly a visionary, and he was good for Georgia Tech for the long run.”
By the way, Clough now is stepping down as Georgia Tech’s president to head up the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. Todd, who is involved with the search for Georgia Tech’s next president, said he is daunted by the task.
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