VIRGINIA (From the Roanoke Times) -- Former Georgia-Pacific CEO and Virginia Tech President T. Marshall Hahn died Sunday at the age of 89.

Hahn served as the leader of the school from 1962 until 1974 and oversaw the transition of Tech from being perceived as a male-dominated military college to a university that accepted non-military students as well as more women.

He oversaw an era of significant growth on campus with 25 new buildings and 30 new undergraduate programs, according to a news release from Virginia Tech. He has been cited as a major influence in transforming the town and university into what they are today.

When Hahn became president, there were a little more than 6,000 students at what was then known as Virginia Polytechnic Institute. By the time he left, enrollment had grown to 17,400 students and the state's General Assembly had conferred the title of university to the institution.

That growth became the basis for what Blacksburg and Tech are today, a town of about 40,000 people with a university that enrolls a little more than 30,000 students, Hahn told The Roanoke Times in 1998.

Hahn was formerly a physics professor and became Tech's youngest president at the age of 35 in 1962. He was often ahead of his class, graduating with a bachelor's degree from the University of Kentucky at the age of 18 and receiving his doctorate in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology at 23 after serving two years in the Navy.

He then went on to work in academia, serving as a professor and department head of physics at VPI and dean of arts and sciences at Kansas State before becoming president.

After leaving the presidency in Blacksburg, he entered the private sector to become president of Georgia-Pacific's chemicals division and eventually the company's CEO in 1983.

"One thing about a university presidency -- you have many, many constituencies," Hahn told The Roanoke Times in 1998, comparing the corporate and academic worlds. "It's easier running a big company."

Hahn is survived by two daughters, Anne Hahn Hurst and Betty Hahn; a son-in-law, Doug Chancey; and three grandchildren, Erin McKelvy, Shane McKelvy and Marshall Hurst. He was predeceased by his wife, Margaret Louise "Peggy" Hahn, and son, William Hahn.

A viewing will be held from 3 to 6 p.m. Friday, June 10, at McCoy Funeral Home, 150 Country Club Drive, Blacksburg, and a memorial service will be held June 11 at 11 a.m. in Burruss Hall on the Virginia Tech campus.