Editor's Note (The View From Here)
In Memoriam
- By Deborah P. Moore
- 04/01/16
The School Planning & Management
and College Planning & Management
team is deeply saddened
by the death, in March, of Peter Li. With his
passing, the education and publishing industries
lost a champion, and many of us have lost
a mentor and a friend.
In the early 1970s, Peter founded the Peter
Li Education Group, an educational publishing
and media company serving the pK-12-through
higher-education markets. The company was
the publisher of titles including: School Planning & Management and College Planning & Management (now a part of 1105 Media, Inc.);
Pflaum Publishing Group, CATECHIST magazine
and Today’s Catholic Teacher magazine (now a part of Bayard,
Inc.); and other titles including Technology & Learning, Today’s
School and Early Childhood News.
A visionary and leader in the education publishing industry, Peter
was inducted into both the Hall of Fame of the Association of Educational
Publishers and the Association of Catholic Publishers’ Hall
of Fame. After 40 years in the industry, Peter sold the company, but
remained very much interested in educational innovation.
A forward thinking man, his influence on the education industry
was great. In 1984, the year the computer revolution began, when
the Apple Macintosh was first introduced and the ratio of students to
computers was 1:92, he decided to publish a magazine to assist teachers
with technology. In 1992, he acquired School Planning & Management,
a magazine that was established in 1962 to help those responsible
for facilities, construction, security and the financial stability of
our nation’s schools. Understanding the important role facilities play
in education, he expanded the editorial coverage to include a special
section for colleges. In 1995, he funded our first annual School and
College Construction Reports and in 1998 began publishing College
Planning & Management as a stand-alone magazine.
Peter was dedicated to making schools a better place for students
and staff, and over the years, supported and nurtured our publications,
allowing them to grow into the resources they are today. For
that we thank him. He will be greatly missed by all of us.