Home > Remember When > Notable Former Faculty > Milton Plesur

Dr. Milton Plesur

Between the years of 1955 and 1987, Dr. Milton Plesur was busy constructing a legend at UB. He was then, and still is today, one of the most influential and reverently remembered professors in UB’s History Department. His commitment to student life and teaching superseded nearly all else according to chronicles left by his former colleagues and students. “When you went to speak to Professor Plesur, generally you couldn’t get out in less than an hour. And there was usually a line of students waiting to talk to him. He saw them all,” said Tom Bauerle, a former student and radio personality at the time of Dr. Plesur’s death.

Dr. Charles Stinger, Senior Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences remembers him today with as much vivid reverence. “He was a master story teller, cleverly interspersing anecdotes of famous political leaders or celebrities into the narrative of his lectures. He made 20th Century American History alive and accessible both to students and to community groups. He was a legendary teacher, in part because he was so accessible, and [he] truly relished the craft and art of teaching.”

Dr. Plesur worked diligently to reach others and change lives. He believed, “Only by the assumption that the totalities of people’s lives are important can we approach the totality of truth.” It was this whole-hearted belief in the significance of the totality of every person’s life which created Dr. Plesur’s honest intrigue for history and his genuine interest in the daily life of his community and his students, two areas that were not mutually exclusive for Dr. Plesur.

Academically, his topics of expertise were both interesting and controversial areas within American 20th Century History, which included Presidential Health and Sexuality, Jewish History and Film History. At a time before the ubiquity of Cultural Studies as a burgeoning academic field, Dr. Plesur had a deep interest in popular culture or what he called ‘history from the bottom up” and was a fierce advocate for the study of popular culture as a legitimate area of study. He believed that “all man’s activities are meaningful” and this is perhaps why he had such an interest in his students. It was their day to day lives, the ephemera they collected, the history lessons they consumed, their popular culture, all of which he sensed would create the history of the next generation. He was not content with just reaching others, but his was a devotion to a higher calling to transform their lives and according to his fellow colleagues and students of the time, he truly did both.

Dr Plesur’s gifted ability to reach his students and impact their lives was memorialized at the time of his death in 1987 when the Student Association created the Milton Plesur Memorial Teaching Award, an annual Student Association award designed to recognize exceptional teaching.

An internationally renowned scholar, Dr. Plesur authored six books and a voluminous number of essays and articles. He earned an MA from UB before pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Rochester, subsequently returning to UB in 1955 to embark on a remarkable 32 year teaching career. Over the course of his UB tenure he was the Associate Dean and Coordinator of the Associate Degree Program and the Director of the Social Sciences Program. He was honored with the prestigious SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and a NAISH Award from the Division of Continuing Education Student Association of SUNY. In 1968 Dr. Plesur was called to be a consultant for the campaign of Eugene McCarthy at the Democratic National Convention and Dr. Plesur also spent a decade on Medaille College’s Board of Trustees highlighting his deep concern for both his wider community and higher education in general. A member of numerous professional and cultural organizations, Dr. Plesur was elected President of the Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Buffalo and belonged to nearly 20 university committees over his career. It has been said and continues to be said that his service to the university was “impeccable.”

Like the story? Share it.