Former NIU President Rhoten Smith died of cancer Saturday in Colorado. He was 82.

Smith guided NIU through rough years for higher education in America and at NIU. The Vietnam War tore at society while Smith served as president from 1967 to 1971.

Current NIU president John Peters said Smith supported students as a policy and also with personal action. When students held a sit-in on the Lincoln Highway bridge and violence seemed imminent, Smith acted as few college presidents would have.

“He got a call in the middle of the night and got up and put on his pants and hat, and went to sit with students when security forces were ready to move in. That showed incredible integrity,” Peters said.

Smith saw a “new university” emerging, one with greater emphasis on research and having students be more active in university affairs.

Long-time friend and former NIU president Bill Monat recalled Smith and his contribution to NIU.

“He was a great man and a very good president,” Monat said. “He had a broad vision of what the university should be.”

Monat said Smith concentrated on bringing in professors that could both teach and perform quality research.

Smith also took measures to include students in decision making at NIU and gave them a voice.

The Office of the Ombudsman was created during Smith’s tenure to give students a neutral place to go for advice with their problems.

Peters also said Smith, along with McKinley “Deacon” Davis, were committed to minority students. Today, the Rhoten A. Smith scholarship fund provides money for minority students seeking graduate degrees.

Smith began his collegiate career at Texas Wesleyan College and the University of Texas. Following three years of piloting a B-17 bomber over Germany and France, Smith finished his bachelor’s degree at the University of Kansas, and later earned his master’s there. He received his Ph.D. in political science at the University of California at Berkeley.

After leaving NIU, Smith served as provost at the University of Pittsburgh, where he remained until his retirement in 1983. He spent his retirement in Colorado, where he was closer to his family.

Smith is survived by his wife, Barbara, their two children, Susan and Tyler, and several grandchildren, nephews and nieces.