Obituary

Zoe Pronti, director of the summer youth program at Cornell's Adult University since 1987, died unexpectedly Aug. 31 in Glens Falls, N.Y. She was 54.

During her 14 years as designer and manager of CAU's acclaimed summer campus youth college, she created a fabulously successful, much envied and copied "family week of college life" for thousands of Cornell alumni children, the children of Cornell faculty and staff and youngsters from the Ithaca area.

The system she created, which combined the experience of Ithaca-area teachers with the enthusiasm of Cornell student instructors and counselors, worked wonders year after year. Her skill at working with departments and units throughout the university created a legion of admirers among staff people all across campus. And she possessed an ability to combine rich, lively activities and programs with a firm grasp of maintaining order and safety for hundreds of youngsters in unfamiliar surroundings.

"Thousands of youngsters who first experienced Cornell under Zoe's guidance, innumerable families who knew their children were in good hands, hundreds of CAU staff members -- temporary and permanent -- who worked with her all have lost a most special friend and colleague," said Ralph Janis, CAU director, who added, "The university has lost a devoted, highly accomplished member of its professional family."

Donations in Pronti's memory can be made to the Salvation Army