Byron H. Atkinson; UCLA Dean of Students

Byron H. Atkinson, UCLA’s blunt-spoken dean of students for 19 years who was internationally recognized for his innovative programs to aid veterans, freshmen and disabled students, has died. He was 76.

Atkinson died Tuesday at his Glendale home of heart failure.

During his tenure as dean of students from 1961 to 1980, Atkinson gained the respect of students, faculty and parents for his direct, evenhanded approach to discipline. He helped restore poorly supported traditions such as homecoming and Spring Sing at UCLA, but also waded into more controversial areas during the troubled 1960s and ‘70s.

He urged an obscenity ban after the Daily Bruin printed two four-letter words in 1966 and bluntly advised UCLA students the same year against supporting a student strike at UC Berkeley, saying: “I cannot support a student strike. It is academic suicide.”

Atkinson continually battled cheating and plagiarism, which gained national attention in 1965 after 100 Air Force Academy cadets were expelled for breaking an honor code.

“Cheating is a major problem in large universities,” he told The Times then, “and anybody who says it isn’t is kidding or covering up.”

A native of Montreal, Atkinson earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees at UCLA and spent 37 years working for the university. After serving as a ROTC-trained lieutenant in the Army during World War II, he taught English at UCLA and began working with student administration. He became dean of men in 1954.

Atkinson developed programs, which became national models, to aid veterans returning to campus after the war, and later to orient freshmen and to assist disabled students.

He served on the California State Board of Education for 17 years, was a trustee of the California State Colleges and helped to develop California’s state college master plan of 1960.

Over the years, Atkinson became an expert on conversing with students.

To be a good listener, he told The Times in 1960, one should use ego-building gestures “to invite continuation”--or to end it.

“If you really want to unnerve someone,” he said, “stare at one corner of his hairline. Or look him in the eyes in a fixed gaze. Your partner will be so ill at ease he’ll start fumbling for words.”

In 1980, Atkinson received the top award of the National Assn. of Student Personnel Administrators. He also received the UCLA Medal and the Scott Goodnight award for outstanding performance as a dean in 1980 and the UCLA Alumni Assn. University Service award in 1971.

Atkinson is survived by his wife, Dorothy; three sons, Scott of Huntington Beach, Barry of San Diego and Craig of Glendale, and a daughter, Shelley Vowell of Issaquah, Wash.

A memorial service is being planned for Dec. 19.

The family has asked that any memorial donations be made to groups supporting research on Alzheimer’s disease.