Post by Riverside Community College District

Salvatore G. Rotella, Ph.D., the seventh president for Riverside City College and then chancellor of Riverside Community College District, passed away on August 11 in New York, with his family at his bedside. Rotella, 86, served the District for 15 years, retiring in 2005. Dr. Rotella was born in Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, a town in Sicily, on July 24, 1934. He spent most of his youth in Asmara in Eritrea, then an Italian colony, and came to the United States with his family in 1951. While working fulltime, Dr. Rotella enrolled at Hunter College, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1955. He studied Political Science at the University of Chicago, attaining his master’s degree in 1956 and Ph.D. in 1971. He earned a Fulbright grant to the University of Pavia in Italy, earning an Italian doctorate in 1958. Prior to moving to California to lead RCCD, Rotella had leadership roles in New York and with the Chicago community college system. "A scholar and a visionary are the terms most often used in describing Dr. Salvatore Rotella,” Mary Figueroa, president of the RCCD Board of Trustees, said. “He was a leader unlike any other to have come along in Riverside’s history. https://bit.ly/3iPZC3Y