Steven Browning Sample, who was president of the University of Southern California for 19 years during which the school rose to international prominence, died at age of 75. Sample’s death was announced by USC, which did not indicate where the Pasadena resident died or the cause of his death. He was USC’s 10th president from 1991 to 2010.

• Before joining USC, Sample was president of the State University of New York at Buffalo from 1982 to 1991.
• Under Sample’s leadership, USC saw its national college ranking soar. The Time/Princeton Review College Guide named it college of the year for 2000.
• The university said during Sample’s presidency, the number of endowed chairs and professorships rose from 152 to 403. Faculty member George Olah won the school’s first Nobel Prize in 1994 for his work in chemistry.
• After retiring, Sample had a lifetime role as a trustee, co-taught an undergraduate leadership course and wrote a Los Angeles Times best-seller called “The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership,” with all royalties donated to a scholarship fund for undergraduates.
• Sample and his wife also donated a bronze statue of Traveler, the white horse ridden by a Trojan warrior mascot during home football games.

Sample was born in St. Louis on Nov. 29, 1940, and married his college sweetheart, Kathryn Brunkow, while both were undergraduates at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he later earned a doctorate in electrical engineering. A specialist in electromagnetic theories, he invented the controls and touch pads used in millions of microwave ovens. He is survived by his wife, daughters Michelle Sample Smith and Elizabeth Sample and two grandchildren.