PHILADELPHIA - Constantine Papadakis, the Drexel University president who is credited with raising the endowment, enrollment and profile of the one-time commuter school, has died. He was 63.

Papadakis died of complications from lung cancer on Sunday evening, three days after he officially stepped down to take medical leave. A statement from Drexel issued Monday said his lung cancer was in remission but that Papadakis died from pulmonary complications.

Papadakis ran the private Philadelphia university like a business and made no apologies for it. But his no-nonsense financial approach was tempered by a smiling, gregarious personality.

Papadakis became Drexel's president in 1995 and began shoring up the school's finances, eventually overseeing construction of numerous campus buildings. Under his leadership, the university acquired schools of medicine, nursing and public health, and established an extensive online degree program. In 2006, Drexel started its own law school.

Drexel has begun putting down roots for a possible second campus in Northern California. It started offering master's degree programs in Sacramento in January and received approval from local officials to build a campus in nearby Placer County, though environmentalists have challenged the plans in court.