Vishnu Narain Bhatia, a 47-year Washington State University professor who developed the school's honors program and served as a special adviser for the president, died Thursday in Pullman.

Bhatia, 78, came to WSU at a formative time and helped shape its academic standards and international reputation. He may also be the only Washington State professor to be knighted.

Born in Lucknow, India, the youngest of seven children, Bhatia was the only one in his family to leave the country.

He returned home many times, including a trip in 1951 to marry Ursula Dawson, a student he met while completing his Ph.D. at the University of Iowa.

In 1952, he and his wife settled in Pullman, where Bhatia took a position in the Pharmacy Department.

"Vic Bhatia was one of those very rare people who had both tremendous intellectual capacity and drive to change the world around him," said Sam Smith, former president of WSU.

"With his students, he was a stickler and demanding," Smith said. "But then he'd help them. He really liked them."

His high-achieving students would often return to Pullman as they succeeded in their careers to show Bhatia what they'd accomplished.

Teaching pharmacy was only his first career. Bhatia went on to shape the university's honors program, which he led for 28 years, and head the university's office of International Education for 17 years. For his work creating programs to send American students abroad and bring foreign students to Pullman, he was awarded the Knights Cross by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark in 1990.

When Bhatia retired, Smith asked him to move into the president's office and act as his personal adviser.

"His intellectual capacity was larger than the field of pharmacy," Smith said. "I did not want the university to lose the services of this remarkable man."

Smith would often turn to Bhatia for support in dealing with international visitors and for perspective on the needs of the campus. Over their lunches in town, Bhatia would offer ideas for improving the quality of education at WSU, ideas that Smith frequently pursued.

"If you have somebody with a track record of that length, if they're willing to spend the time and really mentor you, you listen," Smith said.

Bhatia was described as intelligent and gregarious by his peers, who remember a subtle but sure sense of humor and a real interest in people.

"He was the kind of person you talked to and you felt better after you visited with him," said Bob Smalley, past president of the WSU Alumni Association.

His son Peter Bhatia, executive editor of The Oregonian, described him as a man with high expectations and high moral standards.

Though the praise was sometimes spare, compassion was never far below the surface, Peter Bhatia wrote in 1999 for "Little India" magazine.

"The passing decades may have taken away some of his imperial bearing, may have eliminated the necessity for the crisp, dark, hand-tailored Hong Kong suits and perfectly tied (double Windsor knot, of course) single-color ties, but he still is the epitome of class, intellectual rigor and doing the right thing."

Bhatia is survived by Ursula, his wife of 51 years; his son Peter, his daughter Robin of Spokane and two grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at a date to be determined. The family asks remembrances be sent to the V.N. Bhatia Lecture Fund c/o the Honors College at Washington State University.