Joseph Manch

Loading the player...

← Previous Item Next Item →

Title

Joseph Manch

Subject

Superintendent of Buffalo Public Schools, 1957-1975

member of the University of Buffalo Council, 1959-1962

Land, Adelle H.

Public Schools, Buffalo

School Integration (Buffalo, N.Y.)

University Council

Buffalo (NY)--Schools

Description

Superintendent of the Buffalo Public Schools, 1957-1975; member of the University of Buffalo council, 1959-1962; alumnus of the University of Buffalo. Tape of an interview with Manch conducted by Brenda K. Shelton, November 27, 1978. Concerns his childhood in Niagara Falls and Buffalo; education at UB; career teaching in Buffalo area schools; philosophy of education; school integration.

Overview: Joseph Manch attended the University of Buffalo both as an undergraduate and as a graduate student. He pursued a career in education and was Superintendent of Buffalo Public Schools from 1957-1975. He also served as a member of the University of Buffalo Council from 1959-1962. Mr. Manch begins this rather lengthy interview with a discussion of his childhood in Niagara Falls and Buffalo. He then talks about his education at the University of Buffalo and his early career teaching in several Buffalo area schools. As the interview proceeds, Mr. Manch examines various aspects of his own philosophy of education, including his support of school integration. Several specific topics relative to his tenure as Superintendent of Schools are discussed as well, including the deteriorating fiscal situation of the early 1970s. Toward the end of the interview, Mr. Manch comments on several of his current activities and makes some retrospective comments regarding his experiences as an educator.

Interviewer's Observations: Dr. Manch, November 27, 1978

Dr. Manch had on the table next to him a number of things he had written or which had been written about him, including a book of his poetry and his master's thesis, and during the interview he read from the latter. Mrs. Manch was cleaning a closet, and at one point the sound of her dumping things into a paper bag comes through very clearly. She walked in and out of the room a number of times, and while I was changing the tape expressed some of her own opinions. Her comments about the threatening phone calls and other forms of abuse she and Dr. Manch were subjected to as a result of his stand on integration and her more explicit reference to the political figures he referred to were very interesting but he refused to discuss the subject further on tape. She is obviously very bitter about the way Manch has been treated since his retirement but, again, he would say nothing. There were a number of interruptions on the first side of the second tape, Dr. and Mrs. Manch talked off the record about his relationship with Dr. Reville, and toward the end about the lack of recognition for his early efforts in behalf of integration. I lost track of how much time was left on that side of the tape and therefore reversed it, but neglected to set it back to the start so that the second side does not begin for about eight minutes.