It is with great sadness that we mourn the passing of two members of the University community.

Peter S. Spiridon

Peter S. Spiridon, vice president emeritus for administration and finance, died on February 25, at the age of 79. He served as vice president from 1980 until his retirement in 1998.

“Pete applied his spirited energy and dedication for the benefit of the University as well as the New Jersey higher education community,” says University President Arnold Speert. “During his tenure, he significantly influenced many of the statewide initiatives and activities relating to the acquisition of, and implementation of, autonomy for New Jersey public education.  We also gained recognition and respect in various sectors for our sound fiscal management practices.”

Spiridon oversaw unprecedented growth and expansion of the University’s physical facilities, assets, and operational budget. During his tenure, he supervised the construction of more than $100 million worth of facilities including the Towers, Hillside Hall, the Rec Center, the Atrium, the renovation of the Cheng Library, Hobart Hall, Hobart Manor, and the purchases of College Hall and the Power Art building.

He recognized the importance of information technology to the mission of the institution, and shepherded the development of, and installation of, the University’s network, communication, and information systems.

Early in his career, Spiridon, a civil engineer, was an expert in structural design of long and short span bridges. While in the U.S. Navy, he handled the architectural and structural design of combat vessels including the U.S.S. Forrestal, for which he received a letter of commendation. He was an Air Force veteran of the Korean War.

Spiridon changed his career course in 1960 when he was appointed assistant professor of science at Staten Island Community College. He later joined New York’s CUNY system in various positions for several years before coming to William Paterson in 1980.

He earned a bachelor of science and a master’s degree, both in civil engineering from New York University, and held a professional engineer’s license from New York and New Jersey.

Ana M. Gomez

Ana M. Gomez, assistant professor of history, died on Monday, February 11. Gomez was appointed to the faculty in 2004. 

A Latin American scholar who focused on colonial Central American society and the military, she taught colonial Latin American history and developed several new courses for the department, on both the undergraduate and graduate level. Published in her field, she was the co-editor of a multi-volume book series called Realidad Historica and co-edited the first book in the series: Los Rostros de la Violencia: Guatemala y El Salvador, Siglos XVIII y XIX (The Many Faces of Violence: 18th and 19th Century Guatemala and El Salvador).  Gomez also published an article, “The Evolution of Military Justice in Late Colonial Guatemala, 1762-1821” in the electronic refereed journal, Contra Corriente: A Journal on Social History and Literature in Latin America.

Before coming to William Paterson, she taught at Lewis University. She was the recipient of a MacArthur Scholar Fellowship, and received research awards from Yale University, the University of Minnesota Graduate School, and the Program for Cultural Cooperation Between Spain’s Ministry of Culture and the United States Universities Research Grant.

Born in El Salvador, she received a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from San Francisco University, and earned a doctorate from the University of Minnesota.