Massachusetts Republican gubernatorial candidate William Weld, right, talking with Massachusetts Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Silber during a campaign event in Boston on Sept. 19, 1990. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
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Updated: Thursday, 27 Sep 2012, 2:33 PM EDT
Published : Thursday, 27 Sep 2012, 11:56 AM EDT
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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