REDWOOD CITY – Former Stanford University president Donald Kennedy died of COVID-19 at a residential care facility in Redwood City on Tuesday, the university announced. He was 88.

Kennedy, a neurobiologist and former U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioner, became the university’s eighth president in 1980. He is credited with setting the stage for Stanford’s evolution into one of the nation’s top research universities during his 12 years in office.

“As we mourn the loss of Don Kennedy, we also salute his enormous contributions to Stanford and to our country,” said Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne in a news release.

“As a biologist, as a national voice for science, as a vigorous leader of Stanford University and as an engaging teacher beloved by so many students,” Tessier-Lavigne continued, “Don brought to his endeavors an enduring commitment to academic excellence, a deep wellspring of warmth and good humor and a vision for the possibilities always ahead of Stanford.”

Kennedy, who suffered a serious stroke in 2015, had lived at Gordon Manor, the Redwood City residential care facility, for the past two years, according to the university. He is among the 220 people who have died of the novel coronavirus in the Bay Area.

Kennedy was born on Aug. 18, 1931, in New York City and attended Harvard University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1952, a master’s degree in 1954 and a doctorate in 1956.

In 1960, Kennedy joined the Stanford faculty. The university said he became known as an inspiring and dedicated teacher in both biological sciences and in the Program in Human Biology, an interdisciplinary program that he helped establish and directed from 1973 to 1977.

“My favorite Hum Bio memory is of Donald Kennedy demonstrating echolocation in bats by climbing up on the desk in the front of the room, making ‘bat noises,’ and flapping his arms,” said alumna Catherine Garzio in “The Program in Human Biology at Stanford: The First 30 years, 1971-2002.”

“I’ve thought of it often over the years when other ‘important people’ take themselves too seriously,” Garzio continued. “Human Biology in the ’70s was really cool!”

In 1977, Kennedy followed his own advice to students to get involved in matters of public policy and took a leave of absence from Stanford to serve as commissioner of the FDA under President Jimmy Carter, the university said. Two years later, when Kennedy returned to the university as provost, the New York Times lauded him for his leadership of the agency, writing:

“When he came to Washington two years ago, the agency was torn by internal dissension and the charge in Congress that it had become chummy with the industries it regulates. Morale has been raised and the FDA’s reputation is decidedly one of independence.”

Stanford named Kennedy as its next president in 1980. During his tenure, the university opened the Stanford Humanities Center, expanded interdisciplinary studies and added campuses overseas, according to the university. The university also established Bing Stanford in Washington, D.C., which gives undergraduates the chance to live, study and work as interns with government agencies and nonprofit organizations.

In addition, Kennedy helmed a campaign that raised nearly $1.3 billion and provided funding for new equipment, new buildings and expanded financial aid, the university said.

Kennedy’s term in office, however, was marred by a research-billing scandal that ultimately caused him to resign in 1992. It was discovered Stanford had charged a 19th century fruitwood commode, administration of Stanford Shopping Center and depreciation of a yacht, among other items, to the federal government as overhead on hundreds of millions of dollars of research grants the university received during the 1980s. Congressional hearings were held and changes in federal regulations were made.

Jim Gaither, former chairman of the university’s board of trustees, once described Kennedy as the “students’ president.”

“You welcomed students to join you on your morning runs,” Gaither said at a 2014 ceremony to name a new five-building complex on the east side of campus in Kennedy’s honor.

“You walked and talked and laughed with them. You attended their rallies and performances. You even posed with the swim team – you in swimming apparel (what little there was of it) and the team in business suits – after they met your challenge of winning a second NCAA title,” Gaither continued. “You brought scholars and singers, athletes and student leaders, graduate student and postdocs into your home and your daily life.”

In his 2018 memoir “A Place in the Sun,” Kennedy said many of his best experiences at Stanford involved students.

“Creative, compassionate, and, of course, intelligent are adjectives that describe the many amazing students who have walked those shady arcades of sandstone and tile,” Kennedy wrote.

“During my 12 years as University president, I made a conscientious effort to carve out time to interact with these talented young people,” Kennedy continued. “Through teaching, advising and cheering them on – whether on the field, in the classroom, on the stage or in the biology labs – some of my very best Stanford experiences involved my interactions with undergraduates.”

Kennedy returned to teaching after his stint as president, and in 2000, he became editor-in-chief of Science magazine. He also served on a wide variety of boards, nonprofit organizations and scientific advisory bodies, including the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Stanford Institute for Research in the Social Sciences and the Committee on Science, Technology and Law of the National Academies of Sciences.

Kennedy is survived by his wife, Robin Kennedy, of Menlo Park; children Page Kennedy Rochon, of Washington, D.C.; Julia Kennedy Tussing, of Menlo Park; Cameron Kennedy, of Washington, D.C.; Jamie Hamill, of Las Vegas; their spouses Mark Rochon, Ted Tussing, Rick Desimone and Rosario Hamill; and nine grandchildren.

A celebration of life will be announced when family, friends and members of the Stanford community can safely congregate, according to the university.