Former Pfeiffer University President Cameron West was remembered Monday as a tireless advocate for higher education in North Carolina, including his push for a legislative grant to help students pay for tuition at the state's private colleges and universities.

West, who served as Pfeiffer's president, its sixth, from 1978 to 1988 and as its academic dean two decades earlier, died Sunday. He was 87.

He also was heavily involved in education across the state. He was president of the N.C. Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, and helped lead efforts to create the University of North Carolina system.

"He just had not only a commitment, but a life, that was hard to define by anything but higher education," said Chuck Ambrose, Pfeiffer's current president.

West was born in Eastern North Carolina and earned bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from UNC Chapel Hill. Between his degree work, he served in the U.S. Army Air Corps and as a public school administrator.

West joined Pfeiffer (then Pfeiffer College) as a professor in 1956 and was named academic dean four years later, a position in which he helped lead the college through its most expansive period of academic development, Ambrose said.

He left Pfeiffer in 1966 for the N.C. Board of Higher Education, where he later was appointed director.

In 1972, he was named vice president of planning for the UNC system.

West left North Carolina briefly to be higher education director in Illinois before assuming his post at the N.C. independent colleges' association.

During his time, he spearheaded the creation of a state grant that now gives N.C. residents a tuition credit of $1,950 to attend any state private college or university.

West returned to Pfeiffer as president in 1978, and under his leadership the college more than doubled the size of its endowment and annual college giving.

West remained active in state affairs after his retirement, said Hope Williams, who heads the state association of independent colleges and universities. She said the two spoke as recently as a few months ago about the growth in high school graduates and its impact on the state.

The West family continues to have strong ties to Pfeiffer and colleges across the south. An art gallery on the Pfeiffer campus is named for West and his wife, the late Grace Creech West.