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In Memoriam: Peter Li

  • By Deborah P. Moore
  • 04/01/16

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 .

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