NEW YORK (AP): John Brademas, the former president of New York University and a longtime Indiana congressman, has died at age 89.

NYU spokesman John Beckman said Brademas’ wife, Mary Ellen Brademas, told the university her husband died Monday in New York.

The Democrat from Mishawaka in northern Indiana served 11 terms in Congress. He rose to majority whip, the No. 3 position in the U.S. House, before losing his seat in 1980.
Brademas then became NYU’s 13th president. From 1981 to 1992, he led NYU from a regional school into a research university.

U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly called Brademas a friend who wanted to “make the world a better place.”

NYU President Andrew Hamilton says it’s rare for an institution “to owe so much of its prestige” to one person.