Marc Lindenberg, 56; University Dean and Humanitarian Activist

Marc Lindenberg, 56, dean of the University of Washington’s Daniel Evans School of Public Affairs and a noted humanitarian aid advocate, died May 17 of lung cancer in Seattle.

As dean, Lindenberg started the university’s first endowment and recruited top scholars.

He balanced his academic work with managerial posts in nongovernmental organizations, and from 1992 to 1997 oversaw $400 million in relief and development programs in 36 countries for CARE USA.

He also was a board member of Oxfam America and the Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation.

Lindenberg grew up in Pittsburgh and earned his bachelor’s degree in political science at Oberlin College in Ohio.

He earned his master’s degree and doctorate at USC.

Lindenberg taught at the University of Washington and the University of Oregon in the early 1970s, and was assistant director for the American Friends Service Committee Programs for Southeast Asia.

For most of the 1980s, Lindenberg was dean and professor at the Central American Institute of Businessman Administration, founded in conjunction with Harvard Business School, with campuses in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

He later taught at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and joined the University of Washington in 1998.

The university plans to launch a center for the study of humanitarian action in his honor.