CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) – James O. Freedman, 15th president of Dartmouth College, died Tuesday at age 70, the college announced.

Freedman died at his home in Cambridge after a long struggle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the college said.

Dartmouth President James Wright said that “in his 11 years as Dartmouth’s president he affirmed and extended the college’s commitment to providing a premier liberal arts program and to excellent graduate schools.

“He left Dartmouth stronger and more confident than ever, and he was an eloquent national spokesman for the value of liberal learning.”

Freedman, who preceded Wright as Dartmouth president, served between 1987 and 1998.

A graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School, Freedman led the most comprehensive overhaul of the Dartmouth curriculum in more than 70 years and achieved gender parity, according to the college’s Web site.

Freedman, a native of Manchester, N.H., is survived by his wife, Bathsheba, son Jared and daughter Deborah.