(Danville, Va.) – A Chatham businessman says former Virginia Tech President Charles Steger deserves much of the credit for making Danville’s Institute for Advanced Learning and Research a reality.

Steger died at his home in Blacksburg Sunday at the age of 70.

Ben Davenport served on Tech’s Board of Visitors for eight years and believes the Institute would have never gotten off the ground without Steger’s support. He said the affiliation with Virginia Tech gave the Institute credibility with the General Assembly, which was critical in securing funding during the project’s development. Davenport said “Virginia Tech adopted Danville to really help us facilitate and move forward (with the Institute) and without Charles Steger’s green light the staff and the faculty at the school would have never gotten involved like they ultimately did.” Because of that connection, Davenport believes that state legislators trusted “that whatever happened in Danville with their name attached to it would be good.”

During Steger’s presidential tenure, Virginia Tech grew in enrollment from 28,000 to 31,000, increased graduate enrollment by 12 percent, raised more than $1 billion in private funding, formed a school of biomedical engineering, and joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2004.

Virginia Tech will honor Steger’s life on May 14th at 1:30 in the Moss Arts Center’s Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre followed by a reception.