Garden Dedicated, Scholarship Awarded at Bergen, Peter Snell honored

In honor of former Bergen Community College student and adjunct professor Peter Snell, who passed away suddenly last spring, his colleagues unveiled a memorial – the Peter S. Snell Garden – at an April 9 dedication ceremony. Snell was only 43 years old. As part of the dedication, a current Bergen horticulture student, Michael Szczecina, of Elmwood Park, received a $500 scholarship made possible by fund raisers held in memory of Snell. Dozens of Snell’s family and friends attended the event, including his widow Lisa.
The garden, nestled between an adjacent golf course and Bergen’s Ender Hall, which houses a 2,500 square foot greenhouse, features a large willow tree overlooking a stone path, a religious monument and some of Snell’s favorite assorted shrubs, flowers and plants. A plaque reads, “Peter S. Snell: Teacher, Friend, Colleague.” During the dedication, those in attendance added handfuls of soil to the memorial garden in a symbolic tribute.

Bergen’s coordinator of the horticulture program, Dr. Steven Fischer, a close friend of Snell, said the garden is a living tribute that “will never be done.”

“It’s a beginning,” Dr. Fischer said. “This is how people that mean something to somebody else show that they care.”

The scholarship winner, Szczecina, enrolled at the College in 2002. Currently, he works in a local municipality’s department of public works and takes classes at Bergen in the evening. His passion for horticulture, high GPA and membership in the College’s honor society made him an attractive candidate for the scholarship. He is married and has two high school and college-aged children.

“The scholarship is an honor,” Szczecina said. “It’s going to help a lot; it will help me to continue taking courses.”

Bergen Community College is a public two-year coeducational college, enrolling more than 15,000 students in Associate in Arts, Associate in Science, and Associate in Applied Science degree programs and certificate programs. More than 10,000 students are enrolled in non-credit, professional courses through the Division of Continuing Education, the Institute for Learning in Retirement, and the Philip J. Ciarco Jr. Learning Center, located at 355 Main Street, Hackensack. Information about the College is available at http://www.bergen.edu or by phoning the Welcome Center at 201-447-7200.