LOCH SHELDRAKE – SUNY Sullivan’s founding president Dr. Richard Greenfield has died, the college announced. He passed away on August 7, 2022 in Boulder, Colorado.
Greenfield was president from SUNY Sullivan’s opening in 1963 in the former South Fallsburg High School, until 1966, when he left to become president of Mercy Community College in New Jersey.
SUNY Sullivan grew from 78 full-time students, eight full-time faculty and a skeleton administrative staff when it opened in September 1963 to 740 full-time students, 27 full-time faculty, 10 adjunct faculty, and six administrative and support staff members by the time he left.
“The founding of a college no small accomplishment. All these years later, the SUNY Sullivan community and our county still benefit from the work that pioneers of the community college movement did with great vision,” said current SUNY Sullivan President Jay Quaintance.
In addition to his leadership in opening the college and overseeing its early growth, including the development of its hotel management program, Greenfield led efforts to develop a program of academic requirements and curriculums for a permanent campus for the college and secured support from the board of trustees to appoint an architect to design what is now the college’s Loch Sheldrake campus.
