Brig. Gen. Patrick Finnegan, Longwood University’s 25th president, died Monday, a news release from the university cited.

Finnegan, 68, was reported to have died from an apparent heart attack.

He took office at Longwood in 2010. His leadership at the university was credited with setting in motion an academic master plan for students and faculty, with advocating for expanding international education opportunities for students and with bringing the university from NCAA Division I independent status to the Big South Conference. The university accepted the invitation to participate in the conference in 2012, and the Longwood softball team won its first Big South Championship in the 2013 season.

“President Finnegan was a true citizen leader for our country and an inspiration to the students who were here during his presidency,” Longwood President W. Taylor Reveley IV said in the release. “The entire Longwood community extends our condolences and thanks for his service.”

Finnegan resigned from the university in 2012 due to health reasons and retired to Virginia Beach, later living in Midlothian, the release cited.

Prior to being at Longwood, Finnegan had a distinguished career in the Army. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1971 and returned in 1998 after a career in the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps to serve as professor and head of the department of law before being appointed the 12th Dean of the Academic Board in 2005, the release cited. He served a three-year tour in Germany, handled an assignment at the JAG School in Charlottesville and participated with the XIII Airborne Corps in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He served in the Persian Gulf in operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield and was decorated with several commendations, including the Defense Superior Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal, Joint Meritorious Unit Award and Saudi Arabia/Kuwait Liberation Medal.

Finnegan attended Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School for Government, where he graduated in 1973 with a master’s degree in public administration. Finnegan went on to earn a law degree from the University of Virginia in 1979. At U.Va., he served as an editor of the Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif, an academic honor society.