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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Rev. Boniface Hardin, a Roman Catholic priest who co-founded Martin University to serve adult learners in Indianapolis, has died. He was 78.
The university announced Hardin's death on Saturday on its website. It didn't reveal the cause of death, but The Indianapolis Star reported he was in declining health and was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2002.
The university aimed at serving minorities in low-income neighborhoods was named after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and St. Martin de Porres, a biracial Catholic saint.
The Louisville, Ky., native one of the first African-Americans to graduate from southern Indiana's St. Meinrad School of Theology, was ordained in 1959. A community center he founded in 1969 became Martin Center College in 1977. Martin University has more than 1,000 students today.
Hardin retired from the university in 2008.
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