Former UNC Wilmington chancellor James Leutze, who led the school through a transformative period from 1990 to 2003, died at age 90 from cancer on Friday. He leaves a legacy of increased enrollment, a beautified campus, a broadened mission and a modernized university.
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Leutze’s was a hallowed name in North Carolina higher education. Before arriving at UNC Wilmington, he earned his doctorate in history from Duke University and taught at UNC-Chapel Hill for nearly 20 years.
He focused on foreign affairs and national security, an interest that lead him to interview world leaders like Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev. He created the public television program “Globe Watch,” which aired for 15 years. He produced several documentaries about societal impact on North Carolina’s waterways and coastline.
Leutze also served as a captain in the U.S. Air Force.
His youngest son Jamie Leutze, now 55, told The News & Observer that “growing up with my dad in Chapel Hill in the ‘70s was like growing up with Indiana Jones.”
Both Jamie and his brother Jay described their father’s adventurous and tireless spirit. Leutze brought his children along for countless unique and fascinating rides — from fishing and hunting in North Carolina to travelling across Europe. Jay Leutze, now 62, said he never knew a time in his life when they weren’t planning the next adventure.
“He never stood still,” Jay Leutze said. “He was so much fun, always introducing us to new places and new foods and new languages. He was just larger than life.”
Of all Leutze’s pursuits, it was the work of higher education that captivated him the most. He grew up on a farm, Jay said, and he saw college as a way to escape the toil of the fields. For him, it was “a route to a life with more adventure and more travel,” Jay said.
During his time at UNC Wilmington, enrollment increased by 3,600 students. It launched the Center for Marine Science, now a hallmark of the school. The university’s endowment grew from less than $5 million to nearly $21 million. Its men’s basketball team went to the NCAA tournament for the first time. Its operating budget increased from $59 million to more than $134 million. Leutze “helped shape the UNCW we know today,” said current chancellor Aswani Volety in a statement following Leutze’s death.
Leutze kept open office hours throughout his career, Jay said, getting to know hundreds of students, whose names and circumstances he had “a freakish ability to recall.”
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“People relied on him for advice about their lives, and he was endlessly fascinated in his students’ lives,” Jay Leutze said. He half-joked that the family could not go out to dinner in Chapel Hill or Wilmington without running into four of his father’s former students every time.
A native of Charleston, South Carolina, Leutze led Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia before his tenure at UNC Wilmington. His wife of many years, Kathleen, died in 2022. They have three children, including Jamie and Jay, and five grandchildren.
Leutze died of prostate cancer, a longstanding diagnosis which only made him sick in the final weeks of his life.
“He lived an extremely full life, and he made it to 90,” Jamie said. “By the end, he knew his time was up, and he went on his own terms. Up until a month ago, he was still as active as a 90-year-old could be. It was a blessing that he went the way he did: it was quickly, but he didn’t suffer.”
Details of a funeral or memorial service are not yet finalized. UNC Wilmington has offered to host the event, and the family and the university are working together to find a date.
At UNC Wilmington, Volety says Leutze’s legacy will “inspire generations of Seahawks to keep soaring far into the future.”
“Through dynamic leadership, strategic guidance and an unwavering belief in our potential, Dr. Leutze launched UNCW’s extraordinary growth while preserving the student-centered Seahawk spirit that continues to define our campus,” Volety said.
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This story was originally published July 22, 2026 at 8:53 AM.