John A. Hannah; Ex-President of Michigan State University

John A. Hannah, president of Michigan State University for nearly three decades, the first chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and a former director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, is dead at 88.

Hannah died of bone cancer Saturday at his son’s home in Kalamazoo.

The son of a truck farmer, Hannah is credited with transforming MSU from an agricultural college of 6,000 students into a respected land-grant institution of more than 40,000 students during his tenure from 1941 to 1969.

Hannah, long a football fan, helped steer Michigan State into the Big Ten athletic conference in 1948. Later, he was among a group of college presidents investigating recruiting and other violations of college athletes.

His late wife, Sarah, was the daughter of Robert Shaw, Hannah’s predecessor as head of what was called Michigan Agricultural College and Michigan State College before it became Michigan State University.

“Michigan State has lost its greatest president,” MSU President John DiBiaggio said. “The nation has lost a giant. And the 20th Century has lost a pioneer. John Hannah fed people and he fed minds. He was a nurturer of bodies and a nurturer of intellects.”

Hannah held six presidential appointments and was the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

As an assistant secretary of Defense from 1953-54, Hannah helped formulate the plans that set up the military reserve programs and integrated the branches of service.

While head of MSU, Hannah served as the first chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 1957 to 1969. After leaving the university, he was an administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development from 1969 to 1973, and executive director of the United Nation’s World Food Council in the mid to late 1970s.

A native of Grand Rapids, Hannah attended Grand Rapids Junior College and the University of Michigan Law School.