Wichita State University’s 10th president, Warren Armstrong, died Friday at his home in Oklahoma. He had been experiencing health problems for several months.

Armstrong, who would have turned 71 on Oct. 16, served as WSU president from 1983-93, placing a strong emphasis on research, academics and doctoral programs.

“I credit President Armstrong with the strength and reputation of our faculty, particularly through the introduction of doctoral programs,” said Jim Rhatigan, longtime and former WSU vice president of student affairs. “He overcame objections from our sister institutions about our capability to provide doctoral programs in engineering, and history shows how right he was to pursue those programs.”

Armstrong led the charge to add doctoral programs in electrical, mechanical and industrial engineering. He also supported doctoral programs in psychology, chemistry, education and mathematics.

During his tenure, WSU focused its mission on research in the business/manufacturing environment, created the National Institute for Aviation Research, and completed its first major capital campaign, the $100 million “Commitment to Excellence.”

Other accomplishments during the Armstrong administration include the tripling of sponsored research activities and the addition of 367,000 square feet of new facilities, including the Child Development Center, Devlin Hall, National Institute for Aviation Research, Woodman Alumni Center, and a science classroom and laboratory building, later named Jabara Hall.

He also sought and achieved membership for WSU in the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Universities, contending that WSU was an “urban grant” university serving a metropolitan area, just as Kansas State University serves the agricultural community.

For many, the decision to eliminate football in 1986 was a major disappointment. Growing debt in athletics led administrators to make this move, but controversy about WSU’s lack of football has existed to some degree ever since.

After his retirement from WSU in 1993, Armstrong returned to his self-professed “unending interest in the Civil War,” teaching a class on it and publishing a book on the role of Union chaplains.

When he left WSU, he was quoted as saying, “I know I will miss university life. I’ve been on one side of the desk or the other ever since the fall of 1939,” referring to his journey from elementary school to college professor, dean and university president. “It’s been a good life.”

Services are scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at All Saints Episcopal Church in Miami, Okla.