SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. (AP) —Lake Superior State University saysschool President Thomas Pleger has died following brain surgery. He was 48.
School spokesman John Shibley says Pleger’s wife, Teresa, told school administrators her husband died Sunday, two days after undergoing brain surgery.A school statement says Pleger was taken to a hospital in Sault Ste. Marie on Wednesday before being transferred to McLaren Northern Michigan Hospital in Petoskey.
The school says Pleger underwent surgery there Friday and was in intensive-care recovering with family before he died early Sunday.
Interim Provost David Roland Finley, who will be assuming day-to-day operations of the school, says he extends his “profound condolences to Teresa” and Pleger’s relatives.
Pleger became the school’s eighth president in July 2014. He had previously spent 21 years with the University of Wisconsin system.
