A 42-year-old CUNY doctoral student from Brooklyn was pronounced dead on Wednesday, May 13 following Tuesday, May 12’s Amtrak wreck in Philadelphia that left more than 200 people injured and at least seven dead.
Dr. Derrick Griffith, dean of student affairs for City University of New York Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, was among five victims identified on Wednesday.
“Brooklyn mourns the passing of one of its own, Dr. Derrick Griffith, who we tragically lost in Tuesday’s Amtrak train derailment in Philadelphia. Our hearts go out to his family and to the entire community at Medgar Evers College, where he served as dean of student affairs and enrollment management,” said Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams. “He will be remembered for his commitment to education and his work on behalf of the less fortunate. I encourage all of us, in the spirit of One Brooklyn, to take on the mission he set out on to inspire and assist our young people to achieve their full academic potential.”
“There could not be a finer educator,” Medgar Evers President Rudy Crew said in a statement. “He was an outstanding and very distinguished person who guided many, many students at Medgar Evers since 2011.”
Fresh off of finishing his Ph.D, Griffith was set to graduate at the end of May.
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