Edward J. Mortola

Edward Joseph Mortola (February 5, 1917 – October 21, 2002) was an American academic and education executive who served as president of New York's Pace University from 1960 to 1984, when he became chancellor. He was the university's third president and oversaw its growth from a Lower Manhattan business school to one of the largest independent universities in the U.S., with a centrally located campus at One Pace Plaza, across from City Hall.

Degrees from Fordham and service in World War II Born in New York City, Mortola graduated from Regis High School and continued on to Fordham University, receiving his undergraduate degree in mathematics in 1938, an M.A. in administration in 1941 and, following military duty during World War II, a Ph.D. in education in 1946. He taught at Townsend Harris High School and, from 1942 to 1945, served stateside in the U.S. Navy, teaching at Columbia University's Midshipmen's School. During the final year of the war, he was assigned to Madison, Wisconsin as the director of the Registration Division of the U.S. Armed Forces Institute. He rose to the rank of lieutenant commander by the end of his military service.

Upon leaving the Navy at the end of the war, he returned to Fordham where, while completing studies for his doctorate, he worked as an assistant registrar. He also held a position as a mathematics instructor at another of the city's colleges, Cooper Union. While working as a registrar, he learned that nearby Pace Institute had a position open for an assistant dean. He sought the counsel of Rev. Robert Gannon, the Jesuit president of Fordham from 1936 to 1949, and recollected being advised that, "unless you turn your collar around, you'll never become president of Fordham, but you might at Pace".

During his 24-year tenure as president, Pace expanded its course offerings, its degree programs and its geographic presence. In 1963, a second campus was opened, in the Westchester County village of Pleasantville. In 1966, flanked by Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Mayor John Lindsay, Mortola presided over the groundbreaking of Pace's New York City showplace campus building in the Civic Center area of Lower Manhattan. The building opened in 1969. Four years later, in 1973, under Mortola's leadership, Pace College was awarded university status by the New York State Board of Regents, becoming Pace University.

When Mortola joined Pace in 1947, the Institute had a student body of 5,651 in its classes at 225 Broadway.

Continuing to serve Pace in retirement In 1986, upon the 80th anniversary of Pace's founding, Mortola was asked how he wished to be remembered. His answer: "When I look down the road traveled and the road ahead, I suppose that, most importantly, I would like to be remembered as someone who cared, someone who felt that he had many friends at Pace, someone who spent his life on behalf of this institution and felt that every moment of it was worthwhile".

Following a long illness, Edward Mortola died at his home in the New York City suburb of Rye on October 21, 2002. He was 85 and had been married for 61 years to clinical psychologist Doris Slater Mortola. They were the parents of two daughters, Doreen and Elaine. The university had announced that, on February 9, 2017, a celebration of President Mortola's hundredth birthday would be held at the Mortola Library on the Pleasantville campus. However, due to severe winter weather, the event was postponed.