OBITUARIES
Brother William Batt, FSC BROTHER WILLIAM BATT, FSC, PH.D., professor emeritus of computer information systems, former professor of chemistry, and director of admissions, died on April 28. He was 82. A native of Buffalo, N.Y., he held several teaching positions before his long tenure at Manhattan College, including Lasalle Academy in Providence, R.I., De La Salle College in
Washington, D.C., and Georgetown University. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, he was awarded the medal of the American Institute of Chemists for scholastic achievement in 1954, and received honorable mention for three consecutive years in the National Science Foundation pre-doctoral fellowship program. Br. William began his career with the College in 1959 as an instructor of chemistry. He later served as assistant, associate and professor of chemistry, and also head of the department. In 1972, the College named him director of admissions, marking the first time the administrative position was given to a faculty member. Brother David Van Hollebeke, FSC, retired financial aid director, explained how Br. William used his organizational and computer skills to recreate the College’s Admissions office. Manhattan changed from a tri-state area campus to one that recruited throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. “He made us more competitive and increased enrollment,” Br. David says. “We had our differences of opinion, but he was willing to listen. You didn’t have a boss, you were part of the organization.”
He joined the School of Business’ managerial sciences faculty in 1984, and concluded his career at the College as a part-time admissions counselor before retiring in 1999. “Br. William had a disciplined approach to the tasks that he undertook and had a remarkable career of service to the College and to the Brothers," says Faraj Abdulahad, Ph.D., professor emeritus of economics. “His leadership, dedication and dynamism were an inspiration to all those who worked with him … He will be greatly missed.” In 2002, he went to serve his alma mater, St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute, a private Lasallian high school in Buffalo, as president, until 2005. He returned to the Brothers Community at Manhattan in 2005, where he remained until his retirement to De La Salle Hall, Lincroft, N.J., in June 2010. He received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1954, a master’s degree in physical chemistry in 1956 from The Catholic University of America, and a doctorate from Georgetown University in 1959. He is survived by his sister, Mary Tornow, and his brother, John, both of Buffalo.
Guillermo Romagosa GUILLERMO P. ROMAGOSA, ED.D., assistant professor emeritus of religious studies, and one of the first permanent deacons in the New York Archdiocese, died on July 14. He was 81. A member of the College faculty for more than 30 years, Romagosa also served as an adjunct professor of theology at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Dunwoodie, N.Y. At Manhattan, he was especially known for his popular intersession course, Religious Faith and the Arts, which took students to churches and museums for lectures in situ. During his tenure at Manhattan, he also served on the College Senate. According to John Barry Ryan, Ph.D., professor emeritus of religious studies, “By temperament, Dr. Romagosa was a modest man who did not promote himself. A great deal of what he accomplished in life was little known even to his colleagues.” Ryan described Romagosa’s many archdiocesan accomplishments, including serving as a Spanish-speaking coordinator for the Permanent Diaconate Office of the Archdiocese of New York, chanting the Gospel for Pope John Paul II’s historic Mass at Yankee Stadium and assisting the National Episcopal Conference’s Subcommittee of Hispanic Ministry. “As a testimony to his great work in the New York Archdiocese, he 58 N winter 2015
was honored with burial at St. Patrick’s Cathedral,” Ryan concludes. “At his funeral Mass, the homilist, Monsignor Kenneth Smith, a valued friend to the New York Hispanic community, acknowledged that Romagosa had, without any doubt, left ‘a great legacy’ to the Archdiocese of New York.” A native of Havana, Cuba, Romagosa fled to the United States in 1960 and was ordained by Terrence Cardinal Cooke in 1976. A graduate of Ruston Academy in Havana, he earned his master’s degree in theology and liturgy from the University of Notre Dame and his doctorate in religion and education from Columbia University. He dedicated much of his time to working with religious texts in order to make them available in Spanish. He edited lectionaries, rituals and the Benedicional Missal in Spanish. Romagosa also served as editor of the People’s Missal for 15 years.