Archive for December, 2011

Harris Psomiadis Dies at 82; Founded Center for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at Queens College

December 20, 2011 | Faculty

Harris Psomiadis, founder of the Center for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at Queens College and its director for 30 years, is remembered as “a visionary and a pioneer in Greek studies” by assistant director Effie Lekas. Professor Psomiadis built “the largest center for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies outside of Greece right here at Queens College” and also was “a great teacher…. brilliant but humble,” Lekas said. Psomiadis died of cancer Aug. 13 at age 82.

Gerald M. Friedman, Distinguished Professor of Geology, Dies at 90

December 20, 2011 | Faculty

World-renowned geologist Gerald M. Friedman, who retired in 2004 as a Distinguished Professor at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, died Nov. 29 at age 90. Before coming to CUNY in 1984, he taught for 20 years at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), worked in the oil industry and came to be viewed as one of the founders of the modern study of sedimentary rock.

Patrick V. Murphy, Police Leader Who Reformed New York Force, Dies at 91

December 19, 2011 | Faculty

Patrick V. Murphy, the son of a New York City policeman who rose to lead the Police Department in the early 1970s, steering it through one of its rockiest periods as he instituted reforms to root out corruption in the ranks, died Friday at a North Carolina hospital. He was 91 and lived in Wilmington, N.C.