This post was updated Nov. 5 at 10:25 p.m.

Charles E. Young, who served as UCLA chancellor from 1968 to 1997, died Oct. 22. He was 91 years old.

Young, who also held a professorship in the Department of Political Science, succeeded Franklin D. Murphy as UCLA’s seventh executive leader. His tenure saw the creation of the School of Theater, Film and Television and what eventually became the Luskin School of Public Affairs.

In recognition of his contributions, the Charles E. Young Research Library and Charles E. Young Drive – the campus’s loop thoroughfare – are named after him. After leaving the university, Young also served as president of the University of Florida and chief executive officer of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.

Zev Yaroslavsky, who served on the LA City Council for 20 years, was an undergraduate when Young first arrived at the university. He said Young was key in transforming UCLA from a regional name to one of the best universities in the world.

“He had a vision – a bold vision – (and) he had the courage to bring his vision into reality,” Yaroslavsky said. “He inspired his subordinates and the entire campus community to dream big and then to do what was necessary to realize those dreams.”

Young was heavily involved in UCLA’s physical expansion, which grew the undergraduate student body from approximately 19,000 in 1968 to about 24,000 by the time he stepped down. While Young was chancellor, UCLA built the Anderson School of Management complex, the John Wooden Center and the Drake Stadium complex.

Albert Carnesale, who succeeded Young as chancellor, said one of Young’s biggest achievements was balancing the school’s expansion without compromising the quality of the university’s education.

He added that UCLA’s success in both athletics and academic rankings has become a hallmark of Young’s legacy. During Young’s tenure, the university moved its football team into the Rose Bowl from the LA Memorial Coliseum and established programs for women’s athletics. During his tenure, the school also won 61 NCAA championships in 14 different sports.

Rory Hume, who was dean of the School of Dentistry from 1996 to 1998, said much of the university’s growth can be attributed to Young’s energy.

“Under his leadership, during those years, it became a national force,” said Hume, who later served as executive vice chancellor after Young retired. “It really just blossomed in every way – grew in size, it grew in stature, grew in excellence.”

Yaroslavsky said Young was also instrumental in overseeing the expansion of on-campus housing for UCLA, converting it from a commuter-focused university to a school where the majority of students live on or near the campus.

He added that he thought Young’s professionalism and candor during negotiations around the campus expansion were impressive.

“He was a bold, innovative and courageous leader,” he said. “There’s no public administrator with whom I worked who was a greater leader than Chuck Young.”

Part of Young’s legacy has also been defined by his approach to racial and ideological diversity on campus.

One example of Young’s commitment happened during his first year as chancellor over the hiring of Angela Davis, a Black woman, as an acting assistant professor of philosophy. After Davis was discovered in 1969 to be part of the Communist Party – whose members had been banned from employment by the UC – Young refused requests from the UC Board of Regents and then-California Gov. Ronald Reagan to fire Davis because he wanted to protect academic freedoms, according to UCLA Newsroom.

Young was also involved in controversy for his defense of affirmative action, which he oversaw at UCLA until Proposition 209 banned it in California in 1996. Carnesale said Young was one of the most successful early advocates for diversity at American universities.

Yaroslavsky added that Young was willing to risk arguments with the regents to protect the use of affirmative action in admissions.

“He was a big advocate of affirmative action,” he said. “He wanted to diversify the student body and the academic personnel of the university to make the university look more like the city in which it sits.”

In an emailed statement, Chancellor Gene Block also praised the impact Young had on perceptions of diversity at the university.

“He was a champion of inclusive excellence, the concept that diversity and inclusion are integral to excellence in teaching and research — this is something that remains core to UCLA today,” he said in the statement.

However, Young also attempted to defund the university’s interdepartmental program for Chicana and Chicano studies in 1993 because of budgetary cuts for the university, according to a guide published by the UCLA Library. Students went on a 14-day hunger strike in protest, eventually leading him to reverse the decision, but Young continued to be criticized for his initial choice.

Throughout his 29-year tenure, Young also managed a number of vice chancellors and deans.

Adrian Harris, who served as vice chancellor of planning, said Young always took an active interest in managing important decisions at the university, including the transition to the quarter system. He added that working for the vice chancellor was rewarding because of Young’s dynamic management style.

“He said to me, ‘If you see something that needs to be done around here, don’t ask – just do it,’” Harris said. “I said, ‘This is the kind of person I want to work for.’”

Young was always willing to hear feedback from staff, Harris said. He added that Young always remained friendly despite later issues in his personal life.

According to the LA Times, Young was arrested for drunk driving after a car crash near campus in 1975. After the incident, Young ran the university from a hospital bed, Harris said.

Yaroslavsky, who is now the director of the LA Initiative at the School of Public Affairs, said Young strategically selected members of his team who would balance his skills.

“There are a lot of leaders that don’t surround themselves with smart people because they’re threatened by smart people,” he said. “He had just the opposite point of view.”

Young was particularly attentive to detail, Hume added.

“He also cared deeply about every aspect of the campus: how it looked, how it felt, how people behaved towards each other,” he said. “He’s one of the truly great academic leaders of the last century.”

Block said in the emailed statement that Young’s commitment to the university was a key part of shaping his own approach to being chancellor.

Carnesale added that one of the key constants, both during and after his chancellorship, was Young’s affection for the people around campus.

“He cared about everything long after he was chancellor. He cared about athletics. He cared about student housing. He cared about the policies of the university. He cared about how the medical enterprise was doing,” he said. “His deep involvement and affection for this university was quite notable.”