Former Kansas State athletic director Bob Krause dies at 70

Bob Krause, a former top academic and athletics official at Kansas State, died Wednesday at the age of 70 following a battle with cancer.

Krause served under former resident Jon Wefald as the university’s vice pesident for nstitutional dvancement from 1968 to 2009, helping K-State boost enrollment and fundraising along the way. Krause also briefly served as acting athletic director from 2008 to 2009, taking over after Tim Weiser left.

It was during that time that he was involved in a controversial contract agreement with then-football coach Ron Prince, in which he signed a memo that stated K-State would owe Prince $3.2 million in buyout money should he be fired, on top of the $1.2 million stipulated in his original contract. But Wefald never signed the memo.

K-State claimed the agreement was made in secret between Krause and Prince and should not be honored. Prince and his attorneys argued the opposite. Both parties eventually settled out of court for $1.65 million.

Krause resigned as athletic director in 2009 to become director of development of K-State’s Olathe campus.

This story was originally published December 17, 2015 at 1:16 PM with the headline "Former Kansas State athletic director Bob Krause dies at 70."