Lattie Coor (1936 – 2026)

Their Story

Lattie Finch Coor Jr. was an American academic specializing in public policy and president of two universities. Born in Phoenix, Arizona on September 26, 1936, he was the son of Lattie Finch Coor Sr. and Elnora (née Witten) Coor, with his father being a prominent local educator who was the teaching Principal of Avondale Elementary School and later became the first Superintendent of the Avondale Elementary School District. Coor graduated with honors from Arizona State Teachers College in Flagstaff in 1958 and pursued graduate studies in political science at Washington University in St. Louis, earning a master's degree in 1960 and a Ph.D. in Political Science in 1964. Following his graduation, he served as an assistant to the governor of Michigan and then held positions at Washington University, including vice chancellor, before being named president of the University of Vermont at age thirty-nine, where he served from 1976 until 1989. He was the 21st president of the University of Vermont and the 15th president of Arizona State University, serving at ASU from 1990 to 2002. After his retirement from the presidency of ASU in 2002, he stayed on as Professor and Ernest W. McFarland Chair in Leadership and Public Policy in the university's School of Public Affairs, and in 2002 he also co-founded the Center for the Future of Arizona, serving as chairman and founding director.

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lattie_F._Coor