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Alexander Schure, Education and Technology Visionary and NYIT Founder, Dies at 89
Services for Dr. Schure were held on Sunday, Nov. 1
Alexander Schure, founder of NYIT, dies at 89 Newsday
As NYIT's first president, Alexander Schure, Ph.D., Ed.D., helped formulate the college's mission of providing career-oriented, professional education, access to opportunity for all qualified students, and applications-based research that benefits the entire world.
Alexander Schure, Ph.D., Ed.D., an educational technology visionary and founder of New York Institute of Technology (NYIT), died on Thursday, Oct. 29. He was 89.
Schure founded NYIT in New York City in 1955 and served as its president until 1982. He established today's NYIT campuses in Manhattan at Columbus Circle - Lincoln Center and in the 1960s, in Old Westbury, along Long Island's Gold Coast.
Among Schure's other significant accomplishments was the creation of NYIT's Computer Graphics Laboratory in 1974. This facility led to some of the first breakthroughs in the field of computer graphics. In 1975, Schure directed the first computer-animated feature film, Tubby the Tuba, alongside Pixar co-founders Ed Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith, who worked at the NYIT lab.
In 1977, Schure also helped launch NYIT's College of Osteopathic Medicine, the first osteopathic medical school in New York and the only medical school in Nassau County.
"Alex was a true pioneer and visionary educator, and his legacy continues to grow daily at NYIT," said NYIT President Edward Guiliano. "Fifty years ago, he showed the creation of human capital as the 21st-century answer to a strong and prosperous nation and people, and set about establishing a university that prepared students for careers of the future. This university and all of us have lost a great champion." After stepping down as NYIT president in 1982, Schure served as the school's chancellor until 1991. Later, he served as chancellor of Nova University in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and, in 2001, became president of the New York College for Wholistic Health, Education, and Research in Syosset, N.Y.
A prolific author, Schure was an ardent supporter of technology in the classroom. In a 1992 issue of the journal, Technological Horizons in Education, he wrote,
"Our nation needs educational technology symphonies. They should be so grand that they can provide beautiful harmonies between all people within our educational systems, through the range of instruments provided by ever more awesome educational technologies. They could and should harmonize, through their design, projections of a future that allows for stunning gains across the various ranges of educational services provided by our schools."
Schure is survived by his second wife, Gail, four children-Barbara, Jonathan, Matthew (NYIT's second president), and Louis - and several grandchildren.