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William C. Powers Jr., (at right) who was president of the University of Texas at Austin from 2006 to 2015, died Saturday. A university announcement said that he died "from complications from a fall several months earlier and from oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy, a rare adult-onset muscle disorder."
While Powers was president, he fended off a series of challenges from regents and politicians -- many allies of Rick Perry, then governor -- that academics saw as a threat to the autonomy and values of the university. Gregory L. Fenves, the current president, said in a statement that "Bill was an eloquent and fierce champion for UT students, faculty and staff. Never was this more evident than in the early and mid-2010s, when Bill put every ounce of himself into defending the soul of our university."
