Former FIU Professor Dies in Train Accident

Anna Radinsky/Entertainment Director

Former FIU journalism professor, author and Liberty Square activist Moses Shumow, 42, died on Tuesday, Oct. 22 in Beverly, Massachusetts after being hit by a commuter train.

Shumow was riding his bike on the pedestrian lane when he was hit. Transit Police say the incident is under investigation.

The professor had just moved to the area and began teaching his first semester at his alma mater, Emerson College.

One of his former students at FIU, Jayne Gomez, said Shumow was her favorite professor at FIU and that she was shocked and heartbroken to hear the news.

“Being around him was such a positive experience. His goofy laugh was contagious and he always had a positive outlook on everything. I think secretly every girl had a crush on him because he was amazing: his personality, the way he taught his class, he was so passionate about it,” said Gomez.

Fred Blevens, a retired FIU professor of journalism, worked with Shumow when he helped start the first FIU Global Learning class, How We Know What We Know, in 2012.

“He had stellar evaluations. He had stellar community projects. He had stellar research publications. Most of the time someone is okay at one thing or another but he was fabulous across the board.”

Blevens said that what impressed him most about Shumow was his engaging teaching style.

“He could create a picture in your head with just the words that he used. He really had that talent.”

Hugo Ottolenghi, a visiting instructor for public relations at FIU, also taught How We Know What We Know with Shumow. He said that watching him teach was inspiring.

“What I saw him do in the classroom, what I knew of what he did with the students, motivated me to do better in my own teaching.”

A former student of Shumow, Juan David Endara, dedicated his final project for FIU’s Spanish-language journalism master’s program to him.

Endara’s project is about resilience on people with disabilities. He said that when he was Shumow’s student he felt that the professor treated him with respect, even when he would struggle during class.

“I also have a disability caused by a stroke when I was five months old,” Endara said. “One day I cried out to Shumow because I had a low grade on an exam and I was failing his course. He showed compassion and helped me do better. I ended up with a B+ in his class.”

Students and colleagues of Shumow said his smile would brighten up an entire room. He was known to be dedicated to helping and improving the lives of everyone that had the pleasure to sit in his classroom or cross his path.

“There’s a big void in our little universe here and I don’t know how we’re going to fill it,” Blevens said.

Shumow leaves behind his wife, Rose, and his three children, Lola, Gus and Ruben.

A GoFundMe fundraiser has been made to help support Shumow’s family: https://www.gofundme.com/f/come-together-for-the-shumow-family.