B. Alan Sugg, longest serving University of Arkansas system president, dies at 88

B. Alan Sugg, who served more than two decades as president of the University of Arkansas system, has died. He was 88.

Sugg died Saturday surrounded by his family in Houston, the university said in a news release over the weekend. The university did not give a cause of death.

Sugg was the longest serving president of the UA system and oversaw its expansion from roughly 30,000 students on five campuses in 1990 to more than 70,000 students among 17 campuses when he retired in 2011.

“While I wasn’t fortunate enough to meet Alan Sugg, I know of his lasting impact on the UA System,” UA System President Jay B. Silveria said in a statement. “We are only able to advance the work of the system today because of his outstanding leadership for those many years.”

Born in Helena in 1938, Sugg attended the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville on a track scholarship and graduated with a degree in finance. He was commissioned into the U.S. Army after graduation and stationed in Germany. He later received his master’s degree from UA and his doctorate in higher education from the University of Oklahoma.

Before joining the University of Arkansas system, Sugg worked in higher education in Texas for 22 years, including 13 years as president of Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi.

Sugg’s tenure at UA included several new additions to the system, including five community colleges and the founding of the Clinton School of Public Service on the grounds of the Clinton presidential library in Little Rock.

The UA Board of Trustees named Sugg president emeritus after his 2011 retirement and renamed the University of Arkansas System Administration Building in Little Rock for him.

“I’m proud of the work of our faculty, staff and administrators to help improve our state and the lives of its citizens through higher education,” Sugg said when he retired. “I’m thankful for having had the chance to work with many outstanding chancellors, and I’m grateful to our trustees and the citizens of Arkansas for giving me this opportunity.”