NCAA President Myles Brand, the first university president to serve as the Association’s chief executive, died Wednesday from pancreatic cancer. He was 67.

Brand, who began his tenure in January 2003 after having served as president at Indiana and Oregon, died at his Indianapolis home. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December 2008 and announced his condition to the NCAA Executive Committee, the national office staff and the leadership at NCAA member schools in January, saying the long-term prognosis for his condition was “not good.”

Brand remained committed to leading the Association even through his illness, guiding the national office staff and communicating with presidential leadership up until the final days. He attended the Men’s Final Four in Detroit, was at the table for the Association’s spring governance meetings and worked at his office into September.

Brand was named president-elect of the Association in October 2002 after a national search to replace Cedric W. Dempsey, who had announced he was retiring at the end of that year after having led the Association since 1994.

Robert Lawless, who as president of Tulsa chaired the Executive Committee at the time of Brand’s hire and chaired the search committee, called Brand a pre-eminent “educational leader.

Brand’s contract originally was to run through December 31, 2007, but the NCAA Executive Committee voted in 2005 to extend Brand’s contract by two years and then annually for the indefinite future. The contract extension was scheduled to run through December 31, 2009.

Before assuming the NCAA’s top leadership position, Brand was president at Indiana from 1994 through 2002, and at Oregon from 1989 to 1994.

Born May 17, 1942, Brand earned his bachelor of science degree in philosophy from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1964 and his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Rochester in 1967.

He is survived by his wife, Peg, and one son, Joshua.

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–Courtesy NCAA.org