With great sadness, we share the news that Professor Juan Alejandro Tobias, Rector of the Universidad del Salvador in Buenos Aires and member of the ISEP Board of Directors passed away suddenly of a heart attack in his home in Buenos Aires on February 28, 2018.
Married, father of four children, Tobias was a personal friend of Jorge Bergoglio, known to the world as Pope Francis I. Together, they pursued university studies in Philosophy and Theology. Rector Tobias dedicated his life’s work to the development of the Universidad del Salvador, the institution he led since 1985, nearly half of the university’s existence.
“Science in the mind and virtue in the heart” is not merely the motto of the Universidad del Salvador, it has also been the hallmark of a life dedicated to higher education in Argentina and around the globe.
The Universidad del Salvador joined ISEP in 1986, and Dr. Tobias has been a loyal supporter ever since. When ISEP President John Lucas met Dr. Tobias in 2016, the Rector expressed his pride that Universidad del Salvador students had studied far and wide, well beyond the traditional disciplines of arts and humanities associated with traditional global mobility. His deep understanding of the role of the University in a global society and his commitment to ISEP’s values of community, inclusion and access to a global education led Dr. Lucas to propose Rector Tobias to the Board of Directors in 2017.
Rector Tobias oversaw the expansion of the Universidad del Salvador during his more than three decades of leadership, including the development of two satellite campuses. In addition to his career as Rector, Tobias was co-president of the Network of Latin American and European University (RULE), founding president of the FAPAYEA, the Argentine Foundation of Evaluation and University Accreditation, the Scientific Council of the International Institute for Complex Thought and of the American Academy of Capital Markets.
Dr. Tobias was a personal friend of many of ISEP´s founding leaders and board members and a close colleague of President Thomas S. Healy of Georgetown University, where ISEP was founded in 1979. Rector Tobias leaves an indelible mark on the Universidad del Salvador, on the ISEP Community, higher education in Argentina and on the many lives he touched through a global career of education, research and leadership.
Like this Story? Also like us on Facebook.