Ex-gubernatorial candidate John Silber has died

Associated Press

Updated: Sep 27, 2012 2:33 PM

BOSTON (AP) — John Silber, a former Boston University president and one-time Democratic candidate for governor of Massachusetts, has died.

University spokesman Colin Riley says Silber died Thursday of kidney failure at his Brookline home. He was 86.

Silber took over BU, then a financially troubled commuter school of middling reputation, in 1971. He used his forceful personality to remake it into a prominent national university.

Erudite and combative, he was an outspoken critic of political correctness and popular culture. But he considered himself a liberal on many issues.

He was the Democratic nominee for governor in 1990 but was narrowly defeated by Republican William Weld. Many blamed the loss on a television interview in which he snapped at a reporter.

The San Antonio native also taught at Yale and Texas.

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