J. Russell Nelson

Nelson died at his Tempe home on March 23, 2016 of complications of Alzheimer's disease.

Nelson resigned in 1989 to return to Boulder and lead CU's College of Business Administration. Richard Peck, a former English professor and then-provost and vice president of academic affairs, was named as interim president, serving until the installation of Lattie F. Coor on January 1, 1990. Nelson retired from academia in 1992.

In 1988, the Arizona Board of Regents authorized funding for a Computing and Network Services Building, which was billed as a "computing union" for students to have access to technology for their classes. The building did not break ground until February 1991, two years after Nelson departed the university. Nelson also brought the university to western Maricopa County, a vision first seen by G. Homer Durham in the 1960s. ASU West opened in 1984, and ground was broken in 1986 on the permanent campus facility.

The university also grew more adept at fundraising. In 1984, work was completed on an expansion to the College of Business Administration and a new research building for the school of engineering. Initiated in the late 1980s, the Campaign for ASU raised more than $75 million and led to the construction of a profusion of new buildings toward the end of Nelson's tenure, including an expanded Hayden Library, a second Memorial Union expansion and an additional building for the College of Architecture. One of these buildings, the Fine Arts Center designed by Antoine Predock, was named for Nelson and his wife Bonita. Research grants also doubled from 1981 to 1989.

In 1981, Nelson became the fourteenth president of Arizona State University. Under Nelson, the university focused on education, upgrading its computer infrastructure, and expanding to a second campus.

In 1970, Nelson moved to become vice provost and professor in finance at the University of Colorado Boulder. During his first stint at the university he was rapidly promoted, to associate provost (in 1971), vice president for budgets and planning (1972–74), vice president of administration (1974–77) until becoming acting chancellor in 1977 and chancellor in 1978.

From 1961-1970, Nelson served as an associate professor in finance at the University of Minnesota.

Jack Russell Nelson (December 18, 1929 – March 23, 2016) was an American educator who served as a chancellor/president of the University of Colorado Boulder and Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.