William J. Pesce, Retired CEO of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and a William Paterson University Alumnus, to Give William Paterson University Commencement Address on May 13 at Prudential Center Kurt Landsberger, the late New Jersey businessman, environmental and human rights activist, and philanthropist, to receive honorary degree, posthumously William J. Pesce William J. Pesce, retired president and CEO of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., a global provider of content and knowledge services for the research, professional and education markets, and a 1973 graduate of William Paterson University, will give the commencement address at William Paterson University’s 192nd commencement ceremony on Wednesday, May 13, 2015. The ceremony will be held at 9 a.m. at the Prudential Center in Newark. During the ceremony, the late Kurt Landsberger, a New Jersey businessman, environmental activist, and philanthropist who died in December 2014, will be awarded an honorary doctor of humane letters degree, posthumously. His son, Allen Landsberger, will be present to accept the honorary degree. The commencement will include speeches by a graduating bachelor’s degree and a graduating master’s degree candidate. Bachelor’s and master’s degrees will be conferred upon approximately 2,600 candidates who have completed their degree requirements between August 2014 and May 2015. Alumni from the Class of 1965, who graduated when William Paterson was called Paterson State College, will be present at the morning ceremony along with members of the Pioneer Society, those alumni who graduated at least 50 years ago. The Alumni Association’s Young Alumni Chapter will host a Senior Send-Off reception on Tuesday, May 12 at 7 p.m. in the University Commons Ballroom on campus. Pesce served as president and CEO of John Wiley & Sons for 13 years until his retirement in 2011, and is a member of the company’s board of directors. Prior to joining Wiley, he served as president of W.B. Saunders, one of the world’s leading medical publishers. A member of the William Paterson Board of Trustees since 2002, Pesce chairs the Board’s Educational Policy and Student Development Committee. He has served as Executive-in-Residence for the University’s Cotsakos College of Business, where he continues to interact with students as a guest lecturer. A 1973 graduate of William Paterson University with a bachelor’s degree, Pesce was the first in his family to graduate from college. In 2014, he and his wife Henrietta M. Pesce ‘72, MA ’75, who have been long-time benefactors of William Paterson University, and their children Michael and Katie donated a significant gift to establish the Pesce Family Mentoring Institute in the University’s Career Development Center. The Pesce Family Mentoring Institute is designed to help prepare students for their careers or graduate education by connecting successful professionals, including alumni and community partners, with selected William Paterson undergraduate students. Landsberger, who died in December 2014 at age 94, was a successful businessman, newspaper columnist, environmental activist, author, and philanthropist. He and his late wife, Anny, built two thriving New Jersey businesses in the production of laboratory equipment and medical aids for the elderly—Bel Art Products, founded in 1946, and Maddak Inc., founded in 1979. Landsberger also became involved in local politics and the environment, topics he would eventually turn into a biweekly column for the Verona Cedar Grove Times. An environmental and human rights activist, Landsberger and his wife were the founders of the Hilltop Preservation in Verona. His foundation established and continues to support scholarships in environmental studies at William Paterson University as well as other institutions of higher learning. He funded the Landsberger Holocaust Collections at the Verona and Pequannock libraries, and he was honored in 2014 with an inscription at the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. Mr. Landsberger was the author of seven self-published history books. William Paterson University, one of New Jersey’s leading public universities, offers undergraduate and graduate academic programs through five colleges: Arts and Communication, Cotsakos College of Business, Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Science and Health. Located on 370 hilltop acres in Wayne, the University enrolls more than 11,000 students and provides housing for nearly 2,700 students. The institution’s 404 full-time faculty are highly distinguished and diverse scholars and teachers, many of whom are recipients of prestigious awards and grants from the Fulbright Program, the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation. # # # #
