On May 10, Chancellor Randy Woodson announced in a statement that former Chancellor Marye Anne Fox, the first woman to hold an executive leadership position at NC State, died overnight on May 9. She was 73 years old.

Fox was chancellor at NC State from 1998 to 2004. She also served as the first woman chancellor at the University of California, San Diego from 2004 to 2012. An accomplished organic chemist, she received the National Medal of Science in 2010. 

According to the statement, Fox was battling a long illness at her home in Austin, Texas. During her time at NC State, Fox oversaw the expansion of endowed chairs and professorships, construction at Centennial Campus, and the development of multidisciplinary programs. In recognition of the work she did for the University, a research center she fought to fund bears her name, the Marye Anne Fox Science Teaching Laboratory.

“Even with all of her many accomplishments, what stands out to me is that Marye Anne perpetuated the notion that NC State needed to raise its expectations as a premier academic institution,” Woodson said in the statement. “Her leadership changed how we think of ourselves as a university and elevated NC State’s stature as a world-class academic institution. NC State owes a great deal of gratitude and respect to Marye Anne Fox.”