PVCC Puma Press: October 2003

Gina Kranitz, president of Paradise Valley Community College for the past four and a half years, died Oct. 2 after a 3-decade long battle with cancer. She was 54.

Hundreds of people from across the Maricopa Community College District who had worked with and under Kranitz attended her memorial service Oct. 7 at First Christian Church in Phoenix, where Kranitz was remembered for her strength, her spirit of service, and her strong belief in access to higher education for all.

"The role she had in serving this district will be everlasting," MCC Chancellor Rufus Glasper said. "She was committed. She was dedicated. She was driven."

Glasper challenged attendants of the service to live their lives by her example.

"I challenge each and every one of you to do half as much as Gina has done. To do more. To carry on her work," he said.

Kranitz started her 34-year career with the Maricopa Community Colleges in the Glendale Community College library. She went on to work at the district office, and from 1980-1991 she served at South Mountain Community College as director of administrative services and later as director of college business services.

In 1999, Kranitz became interim president of PVCC, and in 2001 she was appointed president of PVCC after a nation-wide search.

Kranitz also served as president of the Western Association of College and University Business Officers, and she was the first community college administrator to serve as chair of the board for the National Association of College and University Business Officers.

At Kranitz's memorial service, Raul Cardenas, former president of PVCC, spoke of her strength and resiliency.

"She never allowed her illness to become an obstacle in her work," he said. "Not once did I hear her complain."

Cardenas also spoke of all that Kranitz taught him.

"Gina sometimes referred to me as her mentor, but I think I was the mentee," he said.

Kranitz is survived by her husband Mike, her mother and father, and her two sisters.