Two leaders at NCAA member institutions, University at Albany President Kermit L. Hall and Alcorn State University President Clinton Bristow, died recently.

Hall, the president at Albany since February 2005, died August 13 in South Carolina. Bristow, the chief executive at Alcorn State since 1995, died August 19 while jogging on the university campus.

Both men were members of the NCAA Presidential Task Force on the Future of Division I Intercollegiate Athletics. In addition, Bristow was a member of the Division I Board of Directors and the NCAA Executive Committee. He chaired the latter group’s subcommittee on gender and diversity issues.

Before becoming Albany’s 17th president last year, Hall was president and a professor of history at Utah State University for four years.

State University of New York Chancellor John R. Ryan called Hall "a distinguished scholar and mentor to students and faculty alike who, as president for far too short a time, made enormous contributions to the academic advances of the University at Albany."

Before serving as president at Utah State, Hall was the provost and vice president for academic affairs and a professor of history at North Carolina State University for two years. From 1994 to 1999, he served at Ohio State University as executive dean, a professor of history and law of the College of Arts and Sciences, and dean of the College of Humanities. He has held other academic and administrative positions at the University of Tulsa, the University of Florida, Wayne State University (Michigan) and Vanderbilt University.

Hall received his Ph.D. in 1972 from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, after obtaining a bachelor’s degree from the University of Akron, a master’s degree in 1967 from Syracuse University and a master of studies in law degree from Yale Law School in 1980.

Bristow became Alcorn State’s 16th president 11 years ago. He served as dean of the College of Business at Chicago State University for 15 years before that.

At Alcorn State, Bristow spearheaded facility upgrades that include a new $12 million dining hall. Pending projects include a multicultural education center and a biotechnology and research center to serve the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service.

He also created a master’s of business administration degree program in Natchez and expanded computer, nursing and engineering courses offered in Vicksburg, the two cities nearest the Alcorn State campus.

The Vicksburg Post noted Bristow’s propensity for promoting Alcorn State as an "academic resort" and said he was candid about its location — far from malls, movies and fast-food restaurants. According to the Post, Bristow said it took special students to enroll at Alcorn and that it made them closer to each other.

Bristow served as president of the Southwestern Athletic Conference and president of the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Education. While in Chicago, he was a member of the Chicago Bar Association and the LaSalle Street Business Council. He also served as president of the Chicago Board of Education, dean of the College of Business at Chicago State University and vice president at Olive-Harvey College in Chicago.

Bristow earned three degrees from Northwestern University and a master’s of business administration from Governors State University in University Park, Illinois.