Thirty-four years ago, few Kansans had much use for Laurence Chalmers, then chancellor at Kansas University.

The Kansas Union had burned, and they wanted law and order. Instead, Chalmers practiced tolerance.

In the book “Prairie Power,” a look at Midwestern universities’ influence on the student protest movement, historian Robbie Lieberman argues that Chalmers’ approach, though unappreciated at the time, kept a lid on the powder keg.

Chalmer’s reaction to that?

“Oh, it’s hard to assess one’s work within a context of what might have been, rather than those most likely to be remembered,” Chalmers, 76, said from his home in Durango, Colo.

“Looking back, I’d have to say I haven’t had too many bad repercussions from those days,” he said.

He has no apologies, either. “I think the university did exactly what it was supposed to do, and that was to expose students to a wide variety of courses and subjects — to prepare them to lead productive lives,” he said. “The university stands tall in that respect.”

Now “happily retired,” Chalmers volunteers at the Aztec Ruins National Monument near Aztec, N.M.

Chalmers suspects his legacy at KU — he was chancellor from 1969 to 1972 — will be marred by two misconceptions:

• That he canceled spring-semester classes in 1970.

“The semester ended as it always had,” Chalmers said, noting students were given several options for determining their grades. The option had been negotiated with student and faculty representatives.

“We were not alone in that,” he said. “Many, many universities followed a similar course.”

• The union fire was a political act.

“If it was, then why was carried out incognito?” he asked, adding that he still grimaces at the memory of Time, Newsweek and Life magazines citing the fire as proof “revolution had struck the heartland.”

Chalmer’s said his political views hadn’t changed much through the years.

“You know, I spoke out against the Vietnam War shortly after I arrived at KU,” he said. “And about a month after the pre-emptive strike in Iraq, I spoke out against it, too.”