Former Arizona State University President J. Russell Nelson has died.
School officials say the 86-year-old Nelson died Wednesday at his Tempe home from complications of Alzheimer's disease.
Nelson was ASU's president from 1981-89.
During his tenure, the ASU West campus opened and the Karsten Golf Course was built.
Nelson was chancellor at the University of Colorado at Boulder for three years before coming to ASU.
He went back to Colorado school in 1989 to be dean of the business college.
Current ASU President Michael Crow says the university's mission was honed and energized under Nelson's leadership.
