NORTH MANCHESTER, Ind. - A. Blair Helman, the former Manchester College President who invited the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to the campus in 1968, died Sunday. He was 88.

Helman died at a retirement center near the school in the northern Indiana city of North Manchester, the college said.

Helman became president of the liberal arts college at the age of 35 in 1956. He retired in 1986.

King's visit on Feb. 1, 1968, was the civil rights leader's last campus visit before his assassination.

During Helman's 30-year tenure, Manchester College added 16 buildings to its campus. It now has an enrollment of about 1,150 students.