Leslie Koltai; Led L.A. Community Colleges During Major Growth

Leslie Koltai, whose 15-year tenure as chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District during the 1970s and 1980s brought dramatic growth as well as controversy, died Sunday at his Encino home after a lengthy illness. He was 69.

Appointed chancellor in 1972, Koltai oversaw the expansion of the nine-college district, building new campuses, libraries and theaters. With 139,000 students by the early 1980s, it became the largest community college system in the country under his leadership.

Koltai, whose heavy build, thick glasses and strong accent brought comparisons to Henry Kissinger and earned him the nickname “Dr. K,” served as chancellor until 1987, when he was forced to resign after a period of declining enrollments and budget shortfalls.

Supporters considered him visionary for advancing programs that stretched traditional notions of the mission of the two-year colleges.

Among his innovations were Metropolitan College, which served as many as 36,000 military personnel and their families overseas, and a program called the 10th Dimension, which delivered instruction to senior citizens, jail inmates and other nontraditional students via television and telephone.

Born in Hungary, Koltai attended the University of Budapest and became a professor of Russian language and literature.

During the Hungarian revolt of 1956, he joined the Hungary Revolution Radio Committee and broadcast news of the uprising outside the Iron Curtain. When the revolution collapsed, he walked through minefields with his wife and son to escape into Austria, where he joined the Voice of America in Vienna.

In 1957, he immigrated to the United States. Unable to speak English, he got a job selling awnings in Denver. Within a few years he had learned English, moved to Los Angeles and earned a master’s degree in English and journalism at UCLA.

In 1960 he joined the faculty of Pasadena City College as an associate professor of Russian, soon advancing to chairman of the foreign language department.

He developed an interest in community college administration, and returned to UCLA to obtain a doctorate in education in 1967. The following year he was named chancellor of Metropolitan Community Colleges of Kansas City, Mo., where he served until 1972.

He took over leadership of the Los Angeles community colleges three years after they were split off from the Los Angeles Unified School District.

As chancellor, Koltai advocated toughening the curriculum, setting clearer entrance standards and improving the flow of students to four-year universities--unfashionable views in junior college circles in the early 1970s. “I was not one of the boys,” he said.

He also urged campuses to require placement tests for new students, a change that he later acknowledged contributed to enrollment losses in the 1980s.

Enrollment began to drop sharply in 1981 after the Legislature imposed a $50-per-semester tuition fee. It declined further with cutbacks in state funding, delays in financial aid and a decision to start the fall term in August instead of September. To deal with the financial crisis, Koltai began to order layoffs of tenured instructors, which angered the faculty union.

He resigned in October 1987 after he lost the support of a new majority on the district’s seven-member board of trustees.

After leaving the district, Koltai directed the business administration master’s program at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles. He also taught community college administration at UCLA and was the principal investigator for several studies on issues in higher education.

He is survived by his wife of 47 years, Katherine; a daughter, Marian, of Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.; two sons, Steven of Beverly Hills and Robert of Los Angeles; and eight grandchildren.

Memorial donations may be made to the Los Angeles Community College District Foundation for the Leslie Koltai Fund, in care of Blair Sillers, Los Angeles Community College District, 770 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles 90017.