Ashley Schiff Park Preserve

A 12-Acre wooded portion of the Stony Brook Campus is slated to be set aside as a forever-wild memorial to the teacher who once threatened to chain himself to a tree in an ardent attempt to preserve a bit of nature from the onslaught of bulldozers.

Appropriately, the campus memorial service for Dr. Ashley Schiff was followed by a nature walk along a trail of oaks and maples where he and his students had often met and talked.

The 37-year-old associate professor of political science and master of Benjamin Cardozo College was a leading naturalist and conservationist and a demanding teacher.

Best known among the student body as the master of Cardozo, Dr. Schiff was named by two graduating classes as one of the five faculty members who made the greatest contribution to the University. As Prof. Merton Reichler said in his tribute to Dr. Schiff, “Not only was there always something going on at Cardozo College, but what was going on was always worthwhile.”

Among his achievements at the college must be listed the vitality of the speakers program he established last spring, the speaker was former Supreme court Justice and United Nations Ambassador Arthur Goldberg. His presence on campus and that of many other public figures was due to the energy of Schiff.

Friends who knew him said that he was “brutally honest” with himself and perhaps it was this trait more than any other which endeared him to so large a number of undergraduates. It was recalled that while he refused to allow a belly dancer invited by the students to perform at the college, he also withheld his approval of a speaker until he was certain that the latter’s talk would be truly educational.

Statesman, the student newspaper, editorialized: “Schiff stood up for what he believed in and worked tirelessly to translate his thoughts into actions.”

President John S. Toll expressed the grief of the entire university community over Dr. Schiff’s death. “Professor Schiff,” he said, “was widely recognized as holding a leading position within the residential college program.” “Many of us,” Dr. Toll added, “will recall him as a close friend whose valuable contributions to his university will long live after him.”

A native of Brooklyn, Dr. Schiff developed a deep personal interest in natural resources as a boy at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. These interests were refined over the years and became the passion of his professional life.

Before joining the university faculty in 1964, Dr. Schiff taught at Hofstra University and the University of Southern California. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brooklyn College in 1953, he received his doctorate in political science at Harvard University in 1959.