Cooper Health CEO, wife die in fire probed as possible arson

THE DEATHS of Cooper University Health System president and CEO John P. Sheridan Jr. and his wife, Joyce, in a fire at their central New Jersey home yesterday morning are being investigated by an Arson Task Force, authorities said last night.

Police and firefighters in Montgomery Township were called to the couple's house on Meadow Run Drive, in Skillman - about seven miles north of Princeton - at 6:13 a.m., according to a news release from the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office. There, they found a fire contained to the Sheridans' upstairs bedroom and found both Sheridan Jr., 72, and his wife, 69, unconscious.

John Sheridan was pronounced dead at the scene, Prosecutor Geoffrey D. Soriano said in a statement. His wife was taken to Princeton Medical Center, where she was also pronounced dead.

Soriano said Montgomery Township Police detectives and the Somerset County Prosecutor's Major Crimes Unit, along with the Arson Task Force and the Crime Scene Investigations and Forensics Unit, are conducting a probe into the circumstances surrounding the fire. The New Jersey Regional Medical Examiner will perform autopsies on both victims to determine how they died, he said.

John Sheridan was named president and CEO of the Camden-based health system in 2008 after serving as senior executive vice president and chief administrative officer and president of Cooper University Hospital. His achievements during his tenure, a news release from the health system said, included building the $220 million Roberts Pavilion, which added 10 patient floors to the hospital, as well as fostering a partnership with the MD Anderson Cancer Center to bring it to Cooper.

"It is hard to overstate how great a loss John's death is to his family, friends, co-workers and Cooper," George E. Norcross III, chairman of Cooper Health System's Board of Trustees, said in a statement.

Officials said Sheridan also made it a point in his position to aid in revitalizing the beleaguered city of Camden.

"John was larger than life and served our community with a grace and dignity that could not be matched," Camden County Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli Jr. said in a statement last night. "He was a man of integrity and intelligence who cared deeply about the community."