Former University of Scranton President honored with sculpture unveiling

SCRANTON, Pa. — On Saturday in Lackawanna County, the University of Scranton honored and memorialized Reverend Joseph A. Panuska by unveiling a sculpture. 

Father Panuska was the 22nd president of the university and the longest-tenured president in school history. 

He served for 16 years from 1982 to 1998. 

“Serving successfully for 16 years is quite and doing so as a college president requires an uncommon vision, a versitility, a vitality that he had uniquely and in spades. It also requires trust, and throughout that tenure, he earned that trust, and that’s why I think we all remain indebted to Father Panuska for the way that he, many ways, that he earned that wonderful nickname: ‘papa bear,'” said Reverend Joseph Marina, President of the University of Scranton.

The unveiling of the sculpture was part of a brief program during which a university “commons” building was dedicated in Father Panuska’s honor.