Alfred D. Price Jr.

Alfred D. Price, a long-time professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the School of Architecture & Planning, University at Buffalo, passed away on May 2nd, 2023 after a long battle with cancer. He was 75 years old. Born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y., Alfred attended PS # 53 and Bennett High School from which he graduated as an Honor student in 1965. Winning a National Achievement Scholarship Award, he matriculated at Princeton with the Class of 69. He was one of sixteen Black students admitted to enter in the Fall of 1965, and those sixteen were more Black students than Princeton had graduated in all 223 years of her prior history. After his graduation, Price and a friend who finished the same year at Harvard developed and operated a special education project, Afro-Americans for Educational Opportunity, funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and based at Harvard University. Price returned to Princeton in 1971 to study architecture, and four years later earned the highest professional degree offered in the field at that time, the Master of Architecture and Urban Planning. He took a teaching job at the School of Architecture at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, where he was quickly promoted to Assistant Dean. In 1977, Price returned home to accept appointment in the School of Architecture & Planning at the University at Buffalo as Assistant Dean with the rank of Assistant Professor. He earned faculty tenure in 1981, and spent the next 38 years at UB as both a professor and administrator. In his career he was author of dozens of scholarly articles and professional planning documents. In 2000 he was awarded one of the state university systems highest honors, the Chancellors Award for Excellence in Teaching. Price was heavily involved in and committed to community service. He was project director for the study Buffalos Public Art, which resulted in the City Charter being amended to create the Buffalo Arts Commission. He was appointed a member of the BAC, and served on it continuously for sixteen years. Under the direction of Dean Harold Cohen, Price was director of technical services for the Entertainment District Project that led to the restoration and refurbishing of Buffalos downtown theater district. He was a consultant to the Pratt-Willert Village housing re-development in the citys Ellicott District that created hundreds of units of new single-family housing. In the largest such study of its kind, Price directed the Masten Community Renewal Project on the citys east side. Prices civic accomplishments were recognized in 1987 by the National Conference of Christians and Jews (now the National Federation for Community and Justice) with their Community Service Award. At the time that this award was conferred, Price, along with his father, A. D. Price, Sr. and mother, Virginia M. Price, were one of only two local families where each family member received this recognition independently. In 1988, he was given the Exemplary Service Award by the Buffalo Urban League, and in 1991 the Marcus Garvey Medal of Distinction was awarded to Price on behalf of the Jamaican-American Association, presented to him by the Hon. Richard Bernal, Ambassador from Jamaica to the United States. Most recently, he has served on the Olmstead Parks Conservancy and in 2022 was given Planner Emeritus status by the American Planning Association. Price was an active member of the Pundit Club, tapped to join in 1983. In 1995 he was appointed Secretary, a capacity in which he served until his illness in 2020. A lifelong Episcopalian, Price served his parish, the diocese, and the wider church. He was a licensed Lay Reader and Chalice-Bearer, a Eucharistic Visitor (able to take home communion to the sick and shut-in), and acolyte master and trainer. For over thirty-five years he chaired the Diocesan Architectural Commission, providing support services to congregations throughout the diocese. Price was elected ten times by the Diocese of Western New York to serve at the national level as Deputy to the General Convention of The Episcopal Church. In 1997, he was elected by the Synod of Province II of the church to serve on the Executive Council of the church at the national level. In 2018, he was awarded the Walter Decoster Dennis Award for Canonical and Ecclesiastical Leadership by the Union of Black Episcopalians. In November of 2020, the Bishop of Western New York, the Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe, conferred upon Price the honorary title of "Canon for Architecture and Planning." Price is survived by his wife of thirty-two years, the Rev. Canon Barbara J. Price, by four children and nine grandchildren, and by other relatives and many friends. A celebration of Mr. Price's life will be held on Saturday, May 27th at 2 pm at St. Pauls Episcopal Cathedral in downtown Buffalo. All are invited to attend. Visitation with the family greeting will take place at the Cathedral beginning at 1 pm. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation in his memory to St. Peters Episcopal Church, 205 Longmeadow, Eggertsville, NY 14226; or Roswell Park Cancer Institute (give.roswellpark.org). Arrangements by Lombardo Funeral Home, Niagara Falls Blvd.