john r pisapia - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-29T13:31:55Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/john+r+pisapiaObituary: John R. Pisapiahttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/obituary-john-r-pisapia2017-05-31T15:23:07.000Z2017-05-31T15:23:07.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Emily J. Minor</strong><br /><br /> BOCA RATON — John R. Pisapia, a lifelong student of education who loved traveling and learning from leaders in other parts of the world, died May 2 after becoming ill last summer. He was 79.<br /> Although unable to speak in the last months of his life, Dr. Pisapia — on staff as a professor and department head at Florida <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960725874,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960725874,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" width="101" alt="7960725874?profile=original" /></a>Atlantic University for the last 20 years — continued working with his doctoral students through emails and texts, said his stepdaughter, Pamela Baynes.<br /> “He was a teacher until the end,” she said. <br /> Born in New Jersey in 1937, the first of six children to his parents, Carmine and Josephine Pisapia, Dr. Pisapia attended Glenville State College in West Virginia on a football scholarship. Later, when he was invited to the Washington Redskins training camp, he was relieved when he was cut, Baynes said. <br /> The end of football meant he could pursue his real passions: education, leadership and helping students rise to the top.<br /> Dr. Pisapia earned his master’s degree and a Ph.D. from West Virginia University, and then worked as a teacher, coach, high school principal and eventually as West Virginia superintendent of schools. He later became a tenured professor at WVU, and then moved on to Virginia Commonwealth University. <br /> In Virginia, he founded the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium, which focused on research and solutions to America’s obstacles to good learning and good teaching. <br /> “He was very proud of MERC,” Baynes said. <br /> In 1984, he married Pamela Baynes’ mother, Barbara Romano Pisapia, a special education teacher with whom Dr. Pisapia worked for many years. Although Dr. Pisapia was her stepfather, Baynes said she always considered him a father. After he became ill last summer, she eventually quit her job so she could care for him, she said. <br /> John and Barbara Pisapia moved to Boca Raton in 1998, coming to Florida so Dr. Pisapia could help set up FAU’s Department of Educational Leadership.<br /> Besides his grandchildren, his students were his great love, Baynes said. And he used his travel to ground his work on a global level. <br /> “Whenever he entered the room, he always made sure to do his best to make somebody feel at ease and feel welcome,” said FAU professor Daniel Reyes-Guerra. “He wanted them to know there was an important reason for them to be there.”<br /> Dr. Pisapia was mesmerized by leaders of other cultures. Before he became ill, he had just visited and studied in South Korea, Japan and Australia. Each year, he took such a summer trip.<br /> “His whole goal was to learn from those cultures and really immerse himself,” Baynes said. “He would have Chinese students come over and he’d learn from them.”<br /> Mrs. Pisapia died in 2009, after her retirement from special education enabled her to travel with her husband. <br /> “He was a remarkable man and a spectacular person,” said his sister, Jo Ann Walsh Harpster, who lives on Florida’s Gulf Coast.<br /> Dr. Pisapia is also survived by a son and stepson; three grandchildren; another sister, and three brothers.<br /> A memorial service was held May 11, with memory sharing from many of his FAU colleagues.<br /> The family asks that any donations be sent to: FAU Foundation (EDU300), FAU Educational Leadership and Research Methodology, ED47, Suite 260, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton, FL 33431.</p></div>