By Gal Tziperman Lotan

Since her husband, Northeastern College of Business Administration professor Dr. Jonathan Bruce Welch, died March 16, Sue Ellen Welch said she has been wondering how he excelled with such a full agenda.
‘I don’t know how he was able to balance so many things,’ she said. ‘He could keep so many things on agenda and never miss a beat.’
Dr. Welch joined the Northeastern faculty in 1977. At Northeastern, Dr. Welch was department chair of the finance and insurance group and an associate dean of the Graduate School of Business.
He died of metastasized bladder cancer at Massachusetts General Hospital. He was 66.
‘He wanted to make (Northeastern) a better place as long as he was there,’ Welch said. ‘I would consider it his second family.’
In the classroom, Dr. Welch was enthusiastic, current and charismatic. Students took notice and remembered the professor who made finance exciting years after they graduated, Welch said.
‘We were having dinner once in Zurich, in a nice restaurant there, and someone was walking across the restaurant to greet him,’ she said. ‘I didn’t recognize him, and Jon didn’t recognize him either. Sure enough, it was a former Northeastern student who recognized Jon from a finance class. It was very meaningful to Jon, to have many incidents like that.’
Dr. Welch taught classes in the Graduate School of Business Administration in Zurich for more that 20 years, Welch said. He also periodically worked in universities and colleges in Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands, Spain and Ireland.
Dr. Welch insisted on teaching through his illness:’ He convinced doctors to discharge him from Massachusetts General Hospital so his wife and daughter could push him into the classroom, where he delivered a characteristically enthusiastic and exciting lecture.
‘As difficult as it was for us in the winter for us to do it, we knew there was no way he would let us not do it,’ Welch said. ‘Northeastern was an enormous part of Jon’s life, an enormous part. He cared so much about its development.’
Instead of using the previous year’s lectures, Dr. Welch poured over current events and modified his curriculum every semester.
‘He could see that what he had taught in classroom was meaningful in everyday practices,’ Welch said.
In addition to his wife, Dr. Welch leaves three daughters:’ Heather Harriman of Scituate, Stephanie Rufino of Washington, D.C. and Amy Hern of Plymouth; a sister, Charlotte Simmons of Palo Alto, Calif.; two grandsons and a granddaughter.