AUSTIN, Texas -- Frank E. Erwin Jr., the controversial 'emperor' of the University of Texas who led the school's board of regents through the turbulent 1960s and who survived a massive student vote for his ouster, died in Galveston Wednesday of a heart attack. He was 60.
Erwin began his tenure on the board of regents when he was appointed by then-Gov. John Connally in 1963. He was chairman from 1966 to 1971. In 1971, with students and faculty members demanding his removal, he stepped down as chairman, but vowed to complete a six-year term on the board. His appointment ran out in 1975 and he left the regents.
Erwin had been hospitalized at John Sealy Hospital in Galveston for the last week.
'Frank Erwin was the best friend the University of Texas ever had,' Chancellor Don Walker said in announcing Erwin's death. 'He was the best friend I ever had. His death leaves an aching void in us all.
'But more, he leaves a heritage of academic excellence that will live on for generations to come.'
It was not unusual for both Erwin's friends and enemies to call him 'the Emperor of UT.' He was a University of Texas graduate and, even when he was a student, he was vocal in defense of the school's administration.
When then university president Homer Rainey was fired in 1944, Erwin marched in a parade to protest the dismissal and fired off a letter to the student newspaper condemning the action _ the start of what would be a long and angry association with the paper.
His first split with students came in 1967 at the height of anti-Vietnam war protests when he helped host a birthday party for President Lyndon Johnson that was held in the school auditorium. Johnson was met with angry demonstrators as he entered the gym, which in turn angered Erwin.
'I am disturbed because a bunch of dirty nothings can disrupt the workings of a great university in the name of academic freedom,' he railed. 'When it comes to the point where 300 armed policemen are needed to keep from embarrassing the president, we need to re-examine the goals of higher education.'
His phrase 'Dirty Nothing' was quickly adopted by the radicals, who soon sported pins identifying themselves as 'Dirty Nothings.'
In January 1970, students held a referendum demanding that Erwin be removed as chairman for 'unwarranted interference' in the operations of the campus. The specific reason they wanted him out was that he refused to listen to their requests that shade trees not be cut down to make room for an expanded football stadium.
The students voted 6,266 for his ouster to 966 against, but Erwin ignored the vote, saying the count represented less than 20 percent of those eligible to cast ballots.
The chief sponsor of the referendum was the school newspaper, the Daily Texan, which had been at war with Erwin through most of his tenure as a regent.
Erwin said it showed how little power the paper had.
'In view of the bitter and personal vendetta which the student newspaper has been carrying on against me daily for the past several months, I am surprised that they were able to persuade only 17 percent of the students to cast a negative vote,' he said.
While Erwin was chairman of the regents, the University of Texas system grew from 47,000 in 1965 to 67,000 in 1971, an increase of 46 percent. During that time, appropriations from the Legislature increased 111 percent.
Toward the end of his career as a regent, Erwin, a lawyer by trade, was twice arrested for drunk driving and it was disclosed in 1974 that he was several thousand dollars in debt for taxes owed on the estate of his late wife, June Carr Erwin, who died in 1969.
Later that year he entered the hospital for the first time suffering from the heart ailment that eventually killed him.
