Joel Schwartz, Professor of History at Montclair State University and long active in urban history groups, passed away on Wednesday, August 10, 2005, from complications of leukemia. He was 62.

Joel received his BA, MA, and PhD from the University of Chicago, and wrote his dissertation with Professor Richard C. Wade. He taught at Roosevelt University and the University of Illinois, Chicago Circle, as well as Brooklyn College, before teaching for over 30 years at Montclair. He also chaired the Columbia University Seminar on the City and taught a course at Columbia's School of Architecture. In addition to numerous articles and reviews, he wrote The New York Approach (published by Ohio State University Press in a series edited by Zane Miller) and contributed a lengthy section to The Empire State, edited by Milton Klein for Cornell University Press. He most recently compiled "An illustrated Guide to Public Housing" for the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives Photo Exhibit, on the Internet, which has been the subject of articles in The New York Times and Daily News.

He is survived by his wife of thirty-five years, Bonnie Fox Schwartz, a historian of the New Deal, and two children, Marjorie Schwartz Poulos and David J. Schwartz.

The funeral will be private. A memorial service is planned for September 11, 2005, at 4 PM at the Riverside, 180 West 76th Street, New York City. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the College Fund of the University of Chicago, in memory of Joel Schwartz. Send to the University of Chicago, 5801 S. Ellis Avenue, Suite 7, Chicago, IL 60637.