University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: January 18, 2007

By PATRICIA DONOVAN
Contributing Editor

The "old gang" and the "new gang" gathered in the atrium of the Center for the Arts on Dec. 12 to celebrate the career of Peter Gold, longtime and very popular UB faculty member and administrator who retired at the end of the last semester.

Peter Gold (left) shares a laugh with Tyrone Georgiou, associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of art, at Gold’s retirement party last month.
PHOTO: NANCY J. PARISI

In the course of an elaborate celebratory spread, friends and colleagues bid a very fond and humorous farewell to a man whose leadership over the past 37 years helped weave the fabric of undergraduate education at UB, an accomplishment of which he is very proud.

He can be proud of his reputation, too.

"Wild horses couldn't keep me away from a farewell party for Peter," said Phillips Stevens Jr., associate professor of anthropology, who was in the crowd. Other colleagues and co-workers—from College of Arts and Sciences Interim Dean Bruce McCombe to Pat Carey, Gold's administrative assistant—say it was a pleasure to work with him.

Peter Gold never met a student he wouldn't help. Locked out of your required physics course? Call Peter Gold. Need a clear, concise, direct and enlightened answer to anything? Peter Gold. Wrapped in red tape? Peter Gold. Want to know about global warming? Polar bears? Feral rats? The Inuit? You got it.

"Peter worked harder than anyone I know to change and improve undergraduate education at UB and has been a guiding light in the ever-changing policy landscape here," said Michael Metzger, professor emeritus in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures.

"Peter was always even-tempered, regardless of provocation—and he had many," said one colleague. Others called him "a consistently hard worker," "focused," "devoted to the students he served," "a dry wit," "knowing Peter has made my life better." Can't beat that.

Carey, a CAS program administrator who worked with Gold for 10 years, says she will really miss him.

"Patient, kind, generous and funny, both personally and professionally—that's Peter," she said.

"He has been my excellent supervisor, my mentor and my friend. No matter what I did, he was never critical or hurtful, and turned my mistakes into learning opportunities. And, of course, everyone knows that Peter never takes sole credit for anything. He shares it with every single person who works with him on a program or project. I hope I'll be as good a supervisor to others as he's been to me."

Claude E. Welch Jr., SUNY Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Political Science and a longtime colleague and personal friend of Gold and his wife, Athalie Joy, said they "are like the mighty Mississippi: They keep flowing along, powerful in their course, enriching those with whom they interact."

Welch added: "The university will adjust to Peter's absence as it has to the loss of others, but rarely can it find a person so well-balanced and dedicated to what he set out to do. May he be able to, and remain interested in, continuing on, at least part-time, as an administrator and full-time as a personal friend."

Gold retired from UB as associate dean for general education and student services in the College of Arts and Science. Before that, he served as associate dean of the Undergraduate College and assistant vice provost for undergraduate education. But his accomplishments and contributions to the university do not end there—nor does his involvement in the greater Buffalo community.

In his university positions, Gold developed and maintained a major portion of the general education curriculum, worked diligently to develop interdisciplinary courses in American pluralism and world civilization, supported faculty members and departments participating in the general education program, evaluated its courses, developed a program of "freshman courses-in-common," designed curriculum tools to recruit students and recruited new faculty members to teach in the program.

In his early UB days, Gold, as an assistant professor of biological sciences and adjunct professor of environmental studies, directed the academic/residential Rachel Carson College, which taught students to develop an awareness of the environment and the problems that plague it. It was the earliest of a group of several academic-residential programs at UB, but it is the contribution of Rachel Carson College, says Welch, that has made the longest-lasting impression in terms of long-term courses and goals.

Gold's presentations and publications have been in the areas of animal behavior, environmental sciences, local environmental issues and undergraduate education. He served on several university committees and has been a member of a number of scientific committees, including the New York State Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Advisory Board and the Scientific Council of the Buffalo Zoo, and from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s, he also served as assistant professor in the Department of Animal Behavior, American Museum of Natural History.

For 11 years, Gold was the faculty advisor to the Buffalo chapter of the Golden Key National Honor Society, which he established at UB. A recipient of the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Professional Service, he was named Outstanding Freshman Advocate by the National Center for the Freshman Year Experience at the University of South Carolina and received the Excellence Award of the United University Professions/New York State Joint Labor Management Committee.

"I'm most proud of the fact that general education and undergraduate education have improved greatly as a result of my work with other people at UB," Gold said.

"A lot of support for undergraduate education has come through over the years, and as a result we offer a quality education," he said. "I have particularly enjoyed the opportunity to work with so many fine people at UB who have taught me a lot.

"Of the people who hired me (two people fired me), I want to mention Claude Welch, Kip Herreid, Jim Bunn, John Thorpe and all the CAS deans I've worked with—Kerry Grant, Charles Finger, Uday Sukhatme and Bruce McCombe."

Gold will be at UB until September on a "very part-time basis," assisting the college as it selects and prepares his successor to take over general-education and enrollment-management responsibilities.

Then begins his "Gold Age" of leisure and travel.

He says he expects to write about his research into course evaluation and will continue work cataloging and curating his and Athalie's large and growing collection of Native American and Inuit art.

"Peter and Athalie have taken great advantage of the weekly specials on Southwest and other airlines to travel—perhaps to visit their bi-coastal sons, but increasingly to travel further and stay longer," noted Welch.

The Golds have spent considerable time in the southwest U.S., where they collect the Native American art, and have traveled deep into northern Canada to Hudson Bay, well-known for its polar bears. Welch says Gold's Inuit and travel interests manifest themselves through his advocacy for increased attention to the polar regions, but his environmental interests and concerns also have led him to the Galapagos Islands.

"Next year," Gold added, "we expect to go on a trip to Turkey led by Don McGuire." McGuire is director of CAS Student Advisement and Services and adjunct professor of classics, with a specialty in Latin and ancient Roman culture.