Dr. Harold Delaney, a retired professor and college president, and his wife, Geraldine, were found beaten to death on Thursday at a home they owned in Pilot Mountain, N.C. Dr. Delaney, 74, and Mrs. Delaney, 71, also lived in Silver Spring, Md.

The authorities in North Carolina said a warrant had been issued in the killings.

A former associate dean of the State University of New York, Dr. Delaney became president of Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y., in 1974, serving for a year during a period of great transition for the institution. Founded as a women's college by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart in 1917, it was turned into an independent, co-educational institution by Elizabeth J. McCormack, Dr. Delaney's predecessor.

After her resignation, a search committee offered the position to Dr. Delaney, who became the first non-Catholic and the first man to be installed as the college's president.

Born in Philadelphia, Dr. Delaney graduated from Howard University, where he also earned a master's degree and a doctorate in chemistry. His graduate studies were interrupted in World War II while he worked on the Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago. In 1958, he became one of the first two students to receive doctorates at Howard.