Former LSU System President Allen Copping dies

Allen A. Copping, who served as LSU System president for 14 years, died today at his home in New Orleans, following a lengthy illness. He was 84. “Allen Copping’s contributions to the history of the Louisiana State University System and this state were extraordinary,” said current LSU System President John Lombardi, who in a prepared statement praised Copping’s “broad gauge vision” and “exceptional leadership.” He served as associate dean and then dean of the LSU School of Dentistry from 1971 to 1974. In 1974, he was named chancellor of the LSU Medical Center in New Orleans and was appointed to lead the LSU System by the Board of Supervisors in 1985. Copping said the high point of his tenure at LSU was his helping to secure the $125 million gift from Baton Rouge oilman C. B. “Doc” Pennington that led to the founding of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, according to the LSU System statement. “I met with him and we talked,” Copping once recalled of his meeting in 1983 with Pennington. “At the end of the conversation he held up his hands and said, ‘OK, the $100 million is yours.’ I was shocked. I thought we were talking about $5 million.” At the time, The New York Times reported Pennington’s gift was the largest single contribution ever made to an educational institution.