Cooper Health renames Camden building after John Sheridan

Cooper University Health Care is renaming its Three Cooper Plaza building after its former president and CEO, who died in 2014 under disputed circumstances.

The building will be renamed the John and Joyce Sheridan Health Center at Three Cooper Plaza.

John Sheridan was Cooper CEO from 2008 until his death; Joyce Sheridan, his wife, was a retired high school social studies teacher.

"[John Sheridan] strengthened Cooper and expanded its reach to serve many more patients, as well as connected with our community to bring the surrounding neighborhoods back to life," Adrienne Kirby, the president and CEO of Cooper, said in a statement. "John was very special and honoring him and Joyce for all they did for Cooper and Camden is well-deserved."

The 160,000-square-foot building includes primary care, specialists, and community-health physicians. It is part of a Health Sciences Campus project Sheridan led at Cooper.

George E. Norcross III, the South Jersey Democratic leader who chairs the Cooper trustee board, said in a phone interview Saturday that he had offered a resolution earlier last week to the full board of trustees to name the building in the Sheridans' honor.

"John and I had several decades of history together," said Norcross, who said he had recruited Sheridan to join Cooper. Sheridan joined Cooper in 2005, first as its senior executive vice president.

"He and Joyce deserve this type of recognition because of their contributions to Cooper and to Camden," Norcross said.

In praising John Sheridan's intellect and vision, Norcross said two of his most significant contributions to the Cooper system were its MD Anderson Cancer Center, at Two Cooper Plaza, and the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University.

It was Sheridan's idea for Cooper to build its own cancer center, which South Jersey previously did not have, Norcross said. And while efforts to launch a medical school predated Sheridan and had faced obstacles, it was he who finally made it a reality, Norcross said.

A public ceremony for the naming of Three Cooper Plaza after the Sheridans is expected to be held in early May, Norcross said.

In the earlier statement, Norcross said that "Sheridan left a lasting legacy" at Cooper and in Camden, "a city he worked tirelessly to improve. John and his beloved wife, Joyce, loved Cooper, and the Cooper family loved them back. It's only fitting that they will always be remembered at Cooper University Health Care in this way."

John, 72, and Joyce Sheridan, 69, were found dead in their Somerset County home on Sept. 28, 2014. The then-Somerset County prosecutor in spring 2015 concluded that John Sheridan killed his wife, set fire to their master bedroom, and stabbed himself multiple times.

The couple's four sons disputed the findings, and a forensic pathologist they hired concluded that the Sheridans were more likely both killed by an intruder.

Last month, the New Jersey Attorney General's Office announced the state medical examiner had changed John Sheridan's manner of death from suicide to undetermined, a victory for the Sheridans' sons and the latest in a controversial investigation into the high-profile deaths of the couple.

The Somerset County Prosecutor's Office, however, has not said whether it will reopen a criminal investigation into the Sheridans' deaths.

Norcross was among a group of nearly 200 people who had signed a February 2016 open letter calling for the investigation into the Sheridans' deaths to be reopened and for John Sheridan's cause of death to be changed from suicide to undetermined.

The day after the letter was released, Geoffrey Soriano, the Somerset County prosecutor who led the original investigation, was abruptly replaced.

"Most of us are puzzled by the circumstances [of the deaths] and we have no way of knowing what really happened, and thankfully, the state altered the prior determination" of John Sheridan's cause of death, Norcross said Saturday.

Echoing others, Norcross said he saw no signs of John Sheridan being potentially suicidal. On the day he and his wife were found dead in their bedroom, Sheridan had emailed Norcross about a business matter.

In that communication, Sheridan seemed "to be normal as normal is eight or nine hours before the tragedy took place," Norcross said. He could not recall when he last saw Sheridan.

"I have no way of knowing what really happened," Norcross said. "I'm not sure if we'll ever know."

Calling he and Sheridan "partners" in the [Cooper] institution," Norcross added:

"We worked wonderfully together. In my next life, I would love to have John Sheridan's personality. He was a wonderful human being, a kind and decent person."