HANOVER — Brian Austin, Dartmouth College’s executive associate director of athletics for varsity sports and a two-decade member of the department’s staff, died on Monday evening after a lengthy battle with cancer. Austin was 59 years old.
A native of Keene, N.H., Austin was hired by then-athletic director Josie Harper in 2002 to be Dartmouth’s senior associate athletic director. Austin was promoted to his most recent role six years later.
He was responsible for the daily operations of the school’s 35 varsity programs, with direct oversight to various teams. His most recent duties frequently involved programs including baseball, men’s basketball, field hockey, both varsity ice hockey teams and many others.
“When I was appointed the athletics director, I had one person in mind to join the team,” Harper said in a Dartmouth news release. “Brian was a kind and gentle man but had the strength to step up and tackle difficult situations. His integrity and strength of character, along with his fairness as well as his ability to relate to our coaches, was paramount. No matter what the issues were, you could always count on Brian to listen and come to the discussion with no agenda except to be fair.”
Austin graduated in 1984 from Amherst College, for whom he played baseball. After his undergraduate days, Austin worked for his alma mater and the nearby University of Massachusetts as an assistant baseball coach, eventually earning a graduate degree from UMass in 1987.
He joined Cornell as an assistant AD that year, staying until a move to Kentucky’s Transylvania University in 1996. While there, Austin helping move Transylvania’s athletic programs into NCAA Division III play and build both a new athletic center and baseball facility.
“Brian was one of the most talented athletic administrators I have ever had the pleasure to work with,” Dartmouth AD Harry Sheehy said in the news release. “He possessed the rare ability to build trust through truth. He was a tireless advocate for his coaches and student-athletes and was a rock in the department.”
Information on a memorial service or for donations on Austin’s memory will be posted at www.dartmouthsports.com when it becomes available.