Former UW President Charles E. Odegaard Dies

Thu., Nov. 18, 1999

Charles E. Odegaard, a medieval historian credited with raising the University of Washington to national recognition in 15 years as president, is dead at age 88.

Odegaard, whose term as president from 1958 to 1973 was marked by rapid growth and torn by student protests over the Vietnam war, died Sunday in his sleep of natural causes in Seattle.

While he was president of the University of Washington, enrollment went from 16,000 to 34,000, minority student enrollment reached 10 percent.

The school’s graduate programs also gained in prestige, especially the medical school, now among the largest and best-known in the country.

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