Preliminary Inventory of the Office of the President Records

Lattie Finch Coor Jr. was born to Lattie Finch and Elnora (Witten) Coor in Phoenix, Arizona on September 26, 1936. He graduated from Northern Arizona University with high honors in 1958 and earned his M.A. (1960) and Ph.D in Political Science (1964) at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Coor began his professional career at Washington University, where he served as a Lecturer (1967-1967) and Assistant Professor (1967-1976) in the Department of Political Science, as Assistant to the Chancellor (1963-1967), as the Assistant Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (1967-1969), as the Director of International Studies (1967-1969), as Vice Chancellor (1969-1974), and finally as the University Vice Chancellor (1974-1976). On June 1, 1976 Coor accepted a position as the President of the University of Vermont.

Coor began his term as President of Arizona State University on January 2, 1990 and was officially inaugurated on March 15 of that year. He named undergraduate education, research, cultural diversity, and economic development as the Four Pillars of the University's agenda in his inaugural address and went on to build ASU into a Research I University. Coor stepped down as ASU's President in June of 2002. He was criticized over the terms of his separation package, which included a one-year sabbatical at his presidential salary of $224,250, the creation of an Office of the President Emeritus at ASU's Downtown Center, and the indefinite extension of a supplemental pension plan enacted during Coor's time as President. In June of 2003, Coor became a faculty member at ASU's School of Public Affairs and also serves as Chairman and CEO of the Center for the Future of Arizona.