In Memoriam: Peter Li

The School Planning & Management and College Planning & Management team is deeply saddened by the death of Peter Li this past month. 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 that included 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); 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 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 as the computer revolution began. 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 standalone magazine.

Peter was dedicated to making schools a better place for students and staff, and through 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.

This article originally appeared in the issue of .

Featured

  • Austin International School Library Renovation

    Established in 1999, the Education Design Showcase is a vehicle for showing off innovative — yet practical — solutions in planning, design, architecture, and construction. The Austin International School has been recognized with an EDS 2025 Grand Prize award in the category of Renovation.

  • K–12 Safety Trends Report Reveals Reliance on Training, Technology

    Wearable safety technology provider CENTEGIX recently released its 2025 School Safety Trends Report, according to a news release. The report is based on more than 265,000 incidents during the 2024–25 school year as reported through the CENTEGIX Safety Platform, used by more than 800 school districts across the U.S.

  • S4L Launches 2025 Facilities and Construction Brief Survey

    Spaces4Learning recently launched its 2025 Facilities and Construction Brief Survey, which gathers information on K–12 and higher education construction projects nationwide from the previous year. The data we get from you, our readers, forms an industry report offering an overview of current trends in school facilities.

  • Dallas ISD Debuts New Peabody Elementary School

    The Dallas Independent School District in Dallas, Texas, recently announced the completion of the new facility for George Peabody Elementary School, according to a news release. The district partnered with Pfluger Architects and REEDER Construction on the 70,807-square-foot replacement campus, which has the capacity for 550 students.

Digital Edition