University Times

Alan C. Rankin, a key aide to Pitt Chancellor Edward Litchfield who went on to become president of Indiana State University, died Feb. 24, 1999, in Terre Haute, Ind. He was 84.

Robert C. Alberts, in his book, "Pitt: The Story of the University of Pittsburgh, 1787-1987," wrote that Chancellor Litchfield relied heavily on Rankin, a close friend who had worked with Litchfield at Cornell.

Litchfield "had placed Rankin on the Pitt campus late in 1955 as his executive assistant, giving him extraordinary responsibilities, including the management of [the chancellor's] office," Alberts wrote. Rankin later was promoted to vice chancellor. He worked here until becoming president of ISU in 1965, the same year that Litchfield resigned in the wake of the University's financial crisis.

Among his other accomplishments here, Rankin headed a group that, in 1957, developed the plan to create the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. Rankin also was in charge of Pitt arrangements for the Sept. 24, 1959, luncheon for Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, held in the Schenley Hall (now the William Pitt Union) Ballroom.

Rankin was ISU president from 1965 until he stepped down in 1975. Until his retirement in 1980, Rankin served as special assistant to the ISU president, raising funds for special projects.

He earned bachelor of arts and bachelor of science degrees from Fort Hays (Kan.) State University in 1937, and his master's in political science and doctorate in social science from Syracuse University in 1939 and 1955, respectively.

Rankin taught at Miami (Ohio) University from 1946 to 1954. From 1954 to 1956, he was director of student personnel and assistant professor of public administration at Cornell.

Survivors include his wife, Frances Goodnough Atkins Rankin, and daughter Lynn Rankin Kelly and her husband, Kevin Kelly, of Mill Valley, Calif.