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CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) -- Robert Cook Edwards, Clemson University's longest serving president who oversaw the enrollment of the school's first black student, has died. He was 94.

University officials say Edwards had been in declining health for a year before he died on Thursday.

Edwards was president from 1958 to 1979 -- a tenure that included the admission of Harvey Gantt after a years-long court battle to block integration. An architect and former mayor of Charlotte, N.C., Gantt said he credits Edwards' leadership with the lack of violence when he enrolled in Clemson in 1963.

A native of Fountain Inn, Edwards was just the second Clemson graduate to serve as president. He graduated in 1933 and had a successful career in textiles before returning to the college as a vice president for development in 1956.

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