Philip John Thiuri
PhD, Syracuse University, 1976
Urban and regional planning, tourism, geography of race relations, history and philosophy of geography, Africa
Research Interests:
Dr. Thiuri’s teaching career began at the State of New York University at both the Morrisville and Brockport campuses and Syracuse University, teaching Geography and Economics. Early in his teaching career he returned to Kenya to raise his children in Kenyan culture. At the request of his daughters, Dr. Tiuri and his wife returned to the United States where he began teaching at Vassar College. In 1992, Professor Thiuri was appointed to the faculty of William Paterson University and taught geography courses until his retirement. In 2001, he became a Deacon at Saint John’s Cathedral in Paterson, New Jersey. Dr. Thiuri is the Co-founder of Rural Reading Centers Africa a non-governmental organization to encourage the improvement of literacy in rural communities in Kenya. After his retirement Thuiri returned to his home country of Kenya where he and his wife started the organization in 2005. The Rural Reading Centers of Africa started with two pilot locations and now has seven locations throughout Kenya each center having over 3000—7000 volumes of books ranging anywhere from nursery rhymes to university level books.