Nick Piccone
The man who transformed Temple University into what it is today, and who has the university’s arena named after him, has passed away. Peter Liacouras’s son, Greg, confirmed that his father passed away Thursday evening.
He spent his entire adult life working at Temple, hoping to help make it a better a place,” Greg Liacouras said by phone Friday morning.
The younger Liacouras said his father died at Waverly Heights, a skilled-nursing facility in Gladwyne. An official cause of death, other than natural causes from a November 2010 stroke, wasn’t known.
“No one fought harder, but in the end, he died peacefully, surrounded by his family,” Greg Liacouras said. “It’s been a long time coming.”
Liacouras was the seventh president of the university, serving from 1982-2000. The article states that Liacouras was “a man of vision and determination” and there was “no doubt he laid the groundwork for the nationally respected university that Temple is today.”
You can read more about Liacouras here.