SUNY Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus Daniel D. Reiff, a professor of art history at Fredonia from 1970 until 2004, received the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award from Marquis Who’s Who, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to his profession and the Marquis Who’s Who community.
Reiff served as department chair for three years and taught European art and architectural history. He authored many books on architecture, including “Houses from Books: Treatises, Pattern Books, and Catalogs in American Architecture: 1738-1950,” and “Architecture in Fredonia, New York: 1811-1997.” He also contributed numerous articles to professional journals.
Reiff earned his bachelor’s degree with honors in 1963, a master’s degree in 1964, and a Ph.D. in 1970, all from Harvard University. Before coming to Fredonia, Reiff was an instructor of art history at Baylor University Waco, Texas, from 1964 to 1967, and served as acting assistant secretary for the U.S. Commission on Fine Arts from 1969 to 1970. He also served as the president of the Fredonia Preservation Society from 1995 until 1998. A National Endowment for the Humanities fellow in 1985, Reiff also received a Rotary International Fellowship in 1965 and 1966, a Ruth Emery Award from the Victorian Society in America in Philadelphia in 1999, and an Historic Preservation Book Prize by the Center for Historic Preservation of the University of Mary Washington in 2001.
Reiff and his wife, Janet (Madej) Reiff, a Fredonia alumna, along with their children, Nicholas and Michael, made a gift through the Fredonia College Foundation to name the Department of Visual Arts and New Media Office in the newly-renovated Michael C. Rockefeller Arts Center in honor of Dr. Reiff.
