Former Tulane president, Dr. Eamon Kelly, has died.

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Eamon Kelly, who led Tulane University through a basketball scandal to national prominence over almost two decades, died from complications of surgery at Tulane Medical Center Wednesday (June 28), family said. He was 81.

Dr. Kelly attended Fordham University on a football scholarship, his son Andrew Kelly said, and bodysurfed in the Atlantic Ocean into his 80s. His mantra: "It's a good life if you don't weaken."

Dr. Kelly, the child of Irish immigrants, grew up in the Bronx during the Great Depression and World War II. All around him, "people were sick and people were out of work," his son said. "And he wanted to help them."

To do that, he chose economics as his career path. He earned his bachelor's degree in 1958 and master's and doctoral degrees from Columbia University, according to his Tulane curriculum vitae.

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