Edward H. Levi, a former University of Chicago president who became U.S. attorney general and restored confidence in the Justice Department following the Watergate scandal, died Tuesday at his home in Chicago. He was 88.

Colleagues remembered Levi as a man of integrity and intellect who was placed in difficult positions at difficult times, and always rose to the challenge.

He was president of one of the country's premier universities during a time of great student unrest, and his evenhanded leadership kept the school from disintegrating into chaos.

As much as anyone who ever attended or taught classes at the University of Chicago, Levi was a product of the Hyde Park institution and one of its most treasured alumni. He was a student, professor, provost and president at the university, where he first attended kindergarten classes at the U. of C. Laboratory Schools.

"He was a child of the University of Chicago," said Bernard Meltzer, Levi's brother-in-law. "He was a person who represented great integrity as well as great intellectual power."

Nationally, Levi was best known for the role he played in mending the wounds opened during the Watergate scandal. When Gerald Ford became the country's president following Richard Nixon's resignation, Ford reached into the U. of C. and tapped its president to become U.S. attorney general, a position Levi held from 1975 to 1977.

"When I assumed the presidency in August 1974, it was essential that a new attorney general be appointed who would restore integrity and competence to the Department of Justice," Ford told U. of C. officials. "Ed Levi, with his outstanding academic and administrative record at the University of Chicago, was a perfect choice."

Jack Fuller, president of Tribune Publishing Co., worked as a special assistant to Levi when Levi was attorney general.

"He was quite simply the most extraordinary person I have ever known," Fuller said. "He was brilliant, warm and a great family man who managed to find a way to have great achievement and great warmth and decency and a rich family life."

Levi became attorney general in a poisonous atmosphere when the justice and political systems were looked upon with skepticism.

Fuller said Levi, by virtue of his "impeccable integrity," restored confidence in the Justice Department and left it in far better shape.

Donald Rumsfeld, Ford's former chief of staff and secretary of defense, was involved in Levi's selection as attorney general. Rumsfeld, who was chairman of Ford's transition team, helped develop a list of five people to fill the role of attorney general.

"President Ford and I and others felt it was important to have a man of towering integrity," said Rumsfeld. "Being from Chicago, one of the names we put right up there was Ed Levi."

Levi's background was appealing because he had experience in the Department of Justice, working there during World War II. He had developed strong managerial and administrative skills at the University of Chicago. In addition, he was known as a man with "great integrity," a critical characteristic at a time when the "reservoir of trust" had been drained, Rumsfeld said.

"When he made a decision or a judgment people were not inclined to say that he was doing it for some sinister reason or for some partisan reason," Rumsfeld said.

"I think there is no question that the country is fortunate that people of his stature and capability and brain power are willing to serve in public life and to do it with such distinction."

The son and grandson of rabbis, Levi was born June 26, 1911, in Chicago to Elsa and Gerson Levi.

After attending the U. of C. Laboratory Schools, Levi received his undergraduate and law degrees from the university in 1932 and 1935, respectively.

During World War II, he worked as a special assistant in the U.S. attorney general's office. In 1945, he returned to Chicago as a law professor--again, at the University of Chicago.

Levi proved to be a popular professor. Some students even brought their girlfriends or wives to classes to watch Levi teach. In 1949, Levi wrote "An Introduction to Legal Reasoning," a work so influential that half a century later, it continues to be assigned reading at many of the nation's law schools. In 1950, he was appointed dean of the law school, the first Jewish person to hold that position at a major U.S. university.

Thereafter, Levi's life became a string of firsts. In 1962, he became the University of Chicago's first provost. In 1968, he became the first alumnus of the university to be named the school's president. He held that position until 1975.

While Levi was president, student protests culminated in a takeover of the school's administration building. Levi did not call in police or outside authorities. Instead, he waited the students out. After they tired and abandoned their takeover, Levi suspended and dismissed many of their leaders.

"I think it's easy to say that he will be remembered among the very greatest of the presidents of the University of Chicago, indeed among the greatest presidents in all of higher education," said University of Chicago President Hugo Sonnenschein.

"He understood the university so perfectly well," Sonnenschein said. "He was a person who was completely committed to ideas and reason and saw the university as having a special mission in society."

Whether it was in his writings or in his speeches, Levi always kept in mind that the purpose of the university was "thought and reason and having extraordinary reverence and respect for that mission."

After leaving the Justice Department, Levi returned to the university, teaching law. He officially retired in 1984.

Sonnenschein said Levi was also a person who was a true intellectual and valued the intellectual life. He remained active in the university until six or seven years ago and was seen regularly on campus, especially at the law school.

He suffered from Alzheimer's disease for the past several years, University of Chicago officials said.

Levi is survived by his wife, Kate Sulzberger Hecht; three sons, John, David and Michael; and a brother, Harry.