Harold H. Haak, a scholar who guided Fresno State's transition from a troubled college into a broad and growing university, died Friday afternoon in Fresno. He was 68.

Mr. Haak had entered Saint Agnes Medical Center in recent days, apparently suffering an allergic reaction to medication. He lapsed into cardiac arrest Wednesday, but was revived. He had been sustained on a respirator in a coma.

Mr. Haak served as university president from 1980 to 1991 and as interim president of Fresno Pacific University from March 2000 to June 2002.

Professors and administrators remembered Mr. Haak as a learned, pipe-smoking academician who never let his Princeton doctorate in politics stifle a self-deprecating wit. He increased the number of women in Fresno State's administration and saw the university's student population surpass 19,000.

At Fresno Pacific, Mr. Haak guided that university through difficult financial straits, trimming more than $1 million from its $22 million budget, freezing all but essential spending and canceling a planned staff salary increase.

Before leaving Fresno Pacific, he said the campus budget had moved into the black.

Two successors praised Mr. Haak on Friday.

President John Welty of California State University, Fresno, said, "He was extremely helpful when I arrived, and continued that assistance."

Mr. Haak, he said, "laid the foundation for a great deal of growth that has occurred over the years. He maintained his sense of humor, a very important characteristic for a university president to have. He always saw the positive, and was able to use humor to deflect a lot of conversations that might have become tense."

President Merrill Ewert of Fresno Pacific said: "I would call him about specific questions, meet him for coffee and talk. He was somebody I listened to, trusted and considered a good friend."

Ewert described features of Mr. Haak's leadership style as walks around campus, talks with people, listening and telling stories. Mr. Haak made it look easy for a committed Lutheran to thrive at the Mennonite university, Ewert said.

Fresno Pacific spokeswoman Dianna Mock recalls Mr. Haak baffling friends with card tricks. She said: "He was an absolutely wonderful human being, never without a joke or a song. Oh, did he sing! We didn't even need entertainment at his retirement party."

Mr. Haak's reputation led the Clovis Unified School District to call on him and retired Judge Armando Rodriguez in 2001 to lead an athletic eligibility investigation at Clovis West High School. The high-profile case took Mr. Haak and Judge Rodriguez to the Dominican Republic, where they determined that former basketball player Charlie Rodriguez had been too old to be eligible.

Peter Klassen was dean of social sciences through Mr. Haak's Fresno State presidency, and later helped attract him to Fresno Pacific. He remembers Mr. Haak as an educator open to new ideas.

"You could always speak to him as a friend," Klassen said. "He had a real sense of humor."

Klassen, president of the Fresno Pacific Board of Trustees, asked Mr. Haak to consider assuming the Fresno Pacific presidency for two years. Mr. Haak then said, "Hey, I think I would enjoy that."

His crucial fill-in role culminated a long career in education. Mr. Haak was born in the depths of the Depression on June 1, 1935, in Madison, Wis. He received his bachelor's degree at the University of Wisconsin, where he was Phi Beta Kappa in political science. He earned his master's degree there in political science, followed by a doctorate in politics from Princeton University.

Mr. Haak worked as an assistant and associate professor of political science at San Diego State University and later, dean of the College of Professional Studies there.

He first arrived at Fresno State in 1971, hired by President Norman Baxter as academic vice president responsible for academic planning, curriculum development and innovation. He was responsible as well for the academic personnel program, allocation of faculty positions and instructional budgets.

Mr. Haak left Fresno State to become chancellor of the University of Colorado at Denver in 1973, where he remained until he was named Fresno State president.

He used humor to smooth relations with faculty.

Communication professor Melanie Bloom, a former president of Fresno State's Academic Senate, recalls the learn-at-lunch program he began for faculty and staff. He volunteered as its first speaker.

Bloom remembers Mr. Haak laughing with wet pants, telling the slightly intimidated academics, "I have done it. I was using the restroom, and my pants fell into the toilet. I wondered how to explain it, and decided to tell the truth."

Bloom said, "It absolutely endeared him to that audience."

She also remembers him navigating sensitive particulars at the eulogy for a faculty member.

"His eulogy showed such warmth and compassion, but it didn't deny the difficulty involved," Bloom said. "He dealt with it with great compassion and love."

When Mr. Haak arrived as president, relations between Fresno State and the Fresno community suffered serious frictions, Bloom said. A computer center had been firebombed. The university had not emerged completely from its divisions over the Vietnam War.

"He began to build a bridge with the community through athletics," she said. "It has been wonderful. Now you see tremendous support from the community for athletics and the other university operations as well. It is a different school than when he came, and President Welty has pursued that change."