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Rutgers Professor, Newark Historian Clement Price Dies

NEWARK, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Clement Price, a longtime professor at Rutgers-Newark University who was known for his scholarly works and extensive knowledge of the city and its history, has died.

University officials said Price died Wednesday, three days after he suffered a stroke. He was 69 years old.

The Washington, D.C. native came to Newark in the wake of the city's 1967 riots and became one of its most ardent boosters. He later earned his doctorate from Rutgers-Newark before going on to teach history classes there for several years.

Price was named Newark's official historian earlier this year and was chairman of the committee organizing the 350th anniversary of Newark's founding.

He also chaired President Barack Obama's 2008 transition team for the National Endowment for the Humanities and was vice chair of the President's Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.

At Rutgers, he was a professor of history and was named as a board of governors distinguished service professor – one of the highest faculty honors.

He received the award for his dedication "to the ideas of community, and his sustained impact on the development of cultural, civic, educational and academic institutions in the City of Newark and the State of New Jersey" and his "unwavering commitment to the communities in which he lives, and his concern for social justice," according to the university.

He was also the founding director of the Rutgers Institute on Ethnicity, Culture and the Modern Experience at Rutgers-Newark. The interdisciplinary academic center presents lectures, fellowships, symposia, film screenings, performances and other programs on culture, urban life, diversity and race relations.

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