U. Chapel Hill Chancellor Dies

Michael Hooker, chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill since 1995, died Tuesday after cancer treatment that began in January.

Hooker, 53, died at 1:58 a.m. at UNC Hospitals, said hospital spokesman Lynn Wooten.

The chancellor took a leave of absence in April so he could receive experimental treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system, at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md. He had been receiving treatment since January at UNC Hospitals.

Hooker missed a scheduled June 1 return to his office, although he worked at home.

Hooker said last month his cancer had changed from a low-grade, slow-growing form to a high-grade, rapidly growing version. Hooker said he suffered nerve damage to his right leg and left arm as a result of the illness.

At the time, the physicians who diagnosed Hooker described his disease as treatable, saying that if chemotherapy sessions were successful, his cancer could go into remission for years.

"It's not a curable disease," Hooker said. "Some days, I feel like I used to, and then I realize, `Holy Toledo, I've got cancer.'"

Hematology and oncology journals had become his favorite reading, the chancellor said.

UNC President Molly Corbett Broad appointed William O. McCoy as acting chancellor while Hooker went to Maryland for treatment. McCoy left the acting chancellor's post June 1.