Greg Pirmann, PMPA Founder, Executive Vice-President, friend and colleague, passed away on October 16, 2021.
Greg led a life of tremendous honor and dignity, always working to improve opportunities and quality of life for people with all kinds of disability. He worked with and for the people who lived at Pennhurst State School and Hospital for 17 years. When the people moved into new small family-like homes all over Southeast Pennsylvania, Greg took another job, monitoring their progress, and happily saw their transitions to vastly improved lives. Over the ensuing years, he helped solve thousands of individual and system problems, assuring the best for Pennhurst folks and others in similar situations. After retirement, he co-founded the Pennhurst Memorial & Preservation Alliance (PMPA), devoted to learning and memory of what humanity learned from Pennhurst. As part of his volunteer work on this mission, he authored Images of America, The Pennhurst State School and Hospital, a pictorial historical collection which is available for purchase.
His collection of artifacts and documents from his years at Pennhurst will be preserved, and an annual student Fellowship will be renamed in his honor. His constant and fearless standing up for the rights and dignity of people who were ignored by society will never be forgotten.