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Schiff
by Peter Guerrero, date unknown On each commencement day we pay special tribute to the memory of our departed colleague, Dr. Ashley Schiff, who passed away on October 1, 1969. He was thirty-seven years old. Born and reared in Brooklyn, Ashley Schiff was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brooklyn College. His boyhood experiences in the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens deeply influenced most of his later professional life. There he developed an enduring interest in natural resources. Combining the passion of a devoted conservationist with the scholarship of a brilliant political scientist, he produced his major scholarly publication entitled “FIRE and Water: Scientific Heresy in the Forest Service” – A book growing out of his doctoral dissertation at Harvard University, and published by the Harvard University Press in 1962. At the Time of his death Dr. Schiff was engaged in a comparative study of Canadian and American administrative decision making in the conservation of land resources. Despite his creative scholarship, Ashley Schiff will be most remembered at Stony Brook for his dynamic commitment to the university as a community. Soon after he came to Stony Brook from the University of Southern California in 1964, he devoted himself to preserving and enhancing the esthetic and the communal qualities of the campus, qualities which he considered inseparable. One manifestation of this commitment was his continuing struggle to protect its natural beauty. A twelve acre groove of the campus woodlands he had fought so long to maintain intact has been consecrated eternally to his memory and named “Forever Wild.” For as long as this university exists, “Forever Wild” will remain a refuge where people can stroll in peace and solitude and beauty. Equally important was Dr. Schiff’s dedication to Cardozo college, which he served as master. By careful, thorough, and above all, imaginative devotion, he made the cultural and intellectual programs of cardozo college not only fulfill the needs and wishes of its residents but also provide a model from which other colleges could take guidance. Ashley Schiff was cited by each of the two graduating classes as one in a tiny handful of people who had made extraordinary contributions to Stony Brook.
Among this the last class of Stony Brook undergraduates to have worked directly with Dr. Schiff is Peter Guerrero, a young man who has impressively demonstrated his commitment, both scholarly and applied, to improving the environment in which we live. Mrs. Dorothy Schiff honors all of us by joining in the congratulating you, Peter Guerrero, worthy recipient of the Ashley Schiff Award.
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