William B. Stallcup Jr. was often called upon to trade his academic post as a biology professor to serve the Southern Methodist University administration.

For nine months beginning in November 1986, he guided the university as interim president through the difficulties of the NCAA football scandal. He then returned to his passion, teaching biology.

Dr. Stallcup, 87, died June 7 of complications of heart disease at his home in Ranchos de Taos, N.M.

A memorial will be at 10:30 a.m. July 20 at the SMU-in-Taos campus in New Mexico.

Dr. Stallcup's duty as interim president was difficult for a man who preferred the classroom, said his daughter, Lise Stallcup Engel of Dallas.

"My father was never a real political person," Mrs. Stallcup Engel said. "He was just a down-to-earth, what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of guy.

"Being in that high-level world was very hard for him," she said. "Finding out exactly what had gone on was difficult thing for him to handle, but he really always believed in SMU and wanted the best for SMU. He felt like it was his job, to guide them through that."

During his SMU career, Dr. Stallcup served as chairman of the biology department and associate dean of faculty in Dedman College, and twice was associate provost, from 1973 to 1980 and again from 1981 to 1983, when he requested to return to teaching.

"He absolutely loved teaching," his daughter said. "He was always willing to do whatever the university needed him to do, but he always wanted to go back and teach."

SMU President R. Gerald Turner said Dr. Stallcup was a dedicated teacher.

"Bill Stallcup repeatedly answered the call to serve as an administrator in times of special need," Dr. Turner said. "He provided leadership most importantly as interim president during a troubled time. SMU's transition to brighter days would not have been possible without his leadership, integrity and dedication."

Dr. Stallcup was born in Dallas, where he was a 1937 graduate of Forest Avenue High School, now James Madison High School.

He attended SMU on a scholarship and worked summers as a laborer, carrying water for workers who repaired the Dallas streetcar tracks, his daughter said.

Dr. Stallcup originally intended to attend medical school, but a weekend job testing East Texas lake water prompted him to focus on ecological problems.

Dr. Stallcup received his bachelor's degree in biology from SMU in 1941.

He married Marcile Patterson in November 1942.

During World War II, Dr. Stallcup served in the Army Air Forces in England as a waist gunner aboard B-24 Liberators and the P-38 Lightning. He also volunteered to help the Royal Air Force as a radar counter-measure specialist, his daughter said.

He was decorated and received the Air Medal on more than one occasion.

Dr. Stallcup joined the SMU faculty in 1945, but was recalled to active duty with the Air Force during the Korean War. The Air Force, however, decided he was more valuable teaching pre-med students at the University of Kansas, where he received his doctorate, while teaching biology.

In 1954, he returned to SMU as an assistant professor. He was promoted to full professor in 1962.

Dr. Stallcup was a zoologist who specialized in birds. In 1967, the National Science Foundation named him as a consultant to high school and college professors in India.

Dr. Stallcup retired from SMU in 1989, but continued to teach summer field classes at SMU-in-Taos.

"He would take these students on hikes looking for birds and they would be huffing and puffing trying to keep up with him," his daughter said. "He always got a kick out of that."

Dr. and Mrs. Stallcup lived in Dallas and New Mexico until moving to the state permanently in 1994.

On May 9, the SMU board of trustees honored Dr. Stallcup with its Trustee Distinguished Service Award.

In addition to his daughter, Dr. Stallcup is survived by his wife, Marcile "Pat" Patterson Stallcup of Ranchos de Taos, N.M.; two other daughters, Cathy Melanie Stallcup of Albuquerque and Jerre Ann Stallcup of Encinitas, Calif.; two sons, Michael R. Stallcup of Los Angeles and William B. Stallcup III of Encinitas, Calif.; a brother, Robert A. Stallcup of Houston; and six grandchildren.

Memorials may be made to the Dr. William B. Stallcup Jr. Scholarship Endowment for Undergraduate Biology Studies at Southern Methodist University, P.O. Box 750402, Dallas, Texas, 75275-0402, Attention: Gift Administration-Scholarship.