News · Kalamazoo
Lawrence Bryan, Kalamazoo College’s 15th president, dies at 81: he led the K-Plan renewal and opened the Dow Science Center in the early 1990s
KALAMAZOO — Lawrence “Larry” Bryan, who led Kalamazoo College from 1990 to 1996 and steered a rebuild of its signature K-Plan, died Oct. 29 in Springfield, Illinois, the college announced Tuesday. He was 81.
Bryan was the college’s 15th president. He took office on Sept. 1, 1990, after more than 15 years as a professor and administrator at other colleges, and served six years, according to the college. He followed David W. Breneman, president from 1983 to 1989, and was succeeded by James F. Jones Jr., who served until 2004, the college’s list of past presidents shows.
An obituary from Meredith Funeral Home says he died at Springfield Memorial Hospital.
A building era on campus
Bryan’s first months in office overlapped with the close of the first Campaign for Kalamazoo in January 1991. The college says it raised more than $48 million for the endowment and other projects. A main goal was the Dow Science Center, which was paid for entirely with gifts and dedicated in October 1992, giving the chemistry and biology departments new labs, classrooms and offices. The Olds-Upton Science Building was renovated in 1994-95 for physics, math, computer science, psychology and education.
Off campus, he served on the boards of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra and Bronson Hospital and was a member of the Kalamazoo Rotary Club, the college said. He was also a regular at student events and Hornet games.
Reworking the K-Plan
The college calls the renewal of the K-Plan one of Bryan’s most consequential efforts. In 1993 he started a review that drew in faculty, students, staff and alumni. The result kept the plan’s core pieces, rigorous academics, career development, study abroad and the Senior Integrated Project, but fit them into a three-quarter academic calendar instead of a full-year one. The new version took effect with the class that entered in fall 1996.
In 1992, Bryan also urged the campus to put mutual respect and open dialogue at the center of college life and appointed a committee to recruit and keep students and employees from underrepresented backgrounds, the college said.
Minister, dean and president
An ordained United Methodist minister, Bryan earned a philosophy degree from Muskingum College, a Master of Divinity from Garrett Theological Seminary and a doctorate in systematic theology and the philosophy of religion from Northwestern University. He taught religion and served as chaplain and dean at McKendree College in Illinois, then was vice president and dean of Franklin College in Indiana from 1979 to 1990.
After Kalamazoo, he was a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan and, from 1997 until he retired in 2007, president of MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Illinois, where he helped found the Jacksonville Main Street downtown program. He later raised money for the Community Foundation of Morgan County in Indiana.
He is survived by Marj, his wife of 58 years, two children and three grandchildren. A celebration of life is set for 11 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 12, at Morgantown United Methodist Church, 20 E. Washington St., Morgantown, Indiana, with visitation from 10 a.m., the college said.
Sources:
Kalamazoo College, “Lawrence Bryan, Kalamazoo College’s 15th President, Dies at 81” (Nov. 3, 2026; dates, campaign, Dow Science Center, K-Plan review, career, survivors, service), https://www.kzoo.edu/news/lawrence-bryan-kalamazoo-colleges-15th-president-dies-at-81/
Kalamazoo College, “Past Presidents of Kalamazoo College” (predecessor and successor terms), https://www.kzoo.edu/about/history/presidents/
Meredith Funeral Home, obituary for Lawrence “Larry” Dow Bryan (place of death, career dates), https://www.meredithfuneral.com/obituary/LawrenceLarry-Bryan
Photo: Head in the Suburbs, “Kalamazoo College (32697499897).jpg,” Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kalamazoo_College_(32697499897).jpg
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