Steve Janke, Coalition board member, art history professor

Steven Janke, a charter member of the Preservation Coalition and a professor of art history at Buffalo State College, died in his sleep on December 8, 1996 in Buffalo. He had suffered from cancer for seven years

As one who had devoted his life to art history, Janke was deeply impressed with the legacy of great architecture in Buffalo and became an advocate for its preservation. For many years he served on the board of directors of the Preservation Coalition. He served as the organization’s secretary upon his death.

He applied his training as a scholar to good effect in conducting research and writing on many Coalition projects. Two of his efforts, on behalf of the former St. Mary of Sorrows Cchurch and the Buffalo Savings Bank, culminated in their designation as local landmarks.

He also gave lectures for the Coalition, most memorably one on Saragossa, Spain, which he visited often, and one on the ill-fated Bank of Buffalo building. He also used his research skills in pursuing his family genealogy, which gave him great pleasure. Through it all he exhibited charm and a wry humor.

His death at age 54 from cancer, which first manifested itself in 1989, ended a long, valiant and heroic fight. He is survived by his father, Henry, and his sister, Katherine, of Winfield, Kansas, where his remains are interred in the Union Cemetery.

A remembrance was held at the King Urban Life Center, as St. Mary’s is now known, on January 25, 1997. Steve enjoyed the church, and described its architecture on a Buffalo’s Best Info Card, which went through two printings and 10,000 copies.

Austin M. Fox, inspirational local historian

Austin Fox, a former teacher of English at the Nichols School whose avocation of local history architecture led to several books and an influential newspaper column on historic sites, died in December after being struck by a car. Mr. Fox was a prominent figure in the formative years of historic preservation in Buffalo, when the grand landmarks of Buffalo’s golden age seemed destined for the scrap heap.

Much of his public influence stemmed from his column in the Courier-Express, Around Us. Fox used buildings as the point of departure for the telling of local history, thereby vesting them with the aura necessary for popular acceptance and preservation. Except for a brief period when Phil Langdon wrote a wide-ranging real estate column for the Buffalo News, there has been no informed design commentary in the mainstream press since.

While his name is most often associated with major commercial and domestic architecture, his interest in saving two historically rich yet architecturally modest houses on Seneca Street inspired Susan McCartney, who went on to become the president of the Preservation Coalition.

Mr. Fox was gracious, courageous and intellectually honest. He was not afraid to buck general preservationist sentiment if he felt so compelled, nor did he lack the courage to voice misgivings. He once spoke, for example, in favor of building a school in a landmark park. Upon seeing what the construction had actually wrought, Mr. Fox’s real courage manifested itself, and he said publicly that the school was a mistake.