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BOSTON (AP) — Boston College’s chancellor, who is credited with transforming the Roman Catholic regional school into a national powerhouse, has died. The Rev. J. Donald Monan was 92.

The university says Monan died Saturday. He was Boston College’s longest serving president. After stepping down in 1996 after 24 years as president, he became the university’s first chancellor.

College President William Leahy praised Monan as a skilled leader who helped transform the Jesuit college from a financially strapped, predominantly male commuter school to a co-educational and nationally ranked university.

The college has about 14,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Its endowment is among the largest in the nation.

Monan grew up in the Buffalo, New York, area and was a dean and vice president at Le Moyne College in Syracuse before coming to BC.