J. Benjamin Townsend, Ph.D.

Dr. Townsend edited Charles Burchfield's Journals: The Poetry of Place, the comprehensive, scholarly 737-page resource published by SUNY Press in 1993.

His obituary in The Buffalo News published Dec. 15, 1993: Staff. “J. Benjamin Townsend, UB Professor.” The Buffalo News (December 15, 1993) https://buffalonews.com/news/article_1b9caea1-4c93-5466-8eb6-1933848c1f1e.html

A memorial for J. Benjamin Townsend, 75, a longtime English professor and American art scholar, will be offered at 4 p.m. next Wednesday in the Burchfield Art Center on the Buffalo State College campus. Burial will be in Charlotte, Vt.

Townsend died of cancer Monday (Dec. 13, 1993) at his home in Buffalo.

The native of Stillwater received his bachelor's degree at Princeton University, a master's degree at Harvard University and a doctorate at Yale University. All his degrees were in English literature.

Townsend taught at Yale, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the University at Buffalo.

He moved to the Buffalo area in 1957 after taking a job at UB, where he spent most of his career as a professor. He retired in 1983.

At UB, Townsend served as vice chairman of the English department and director of the master of arts in humanities program.

He was responsible for numerous exhibitions at the Burchfield Art Center and served on its Art and Acquisitions Committee.

He also was founding assistant director of the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution from 1967 to 1968, served on the advisory council for the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and was an art critic for The Buffalo News in the early '60s.

Townsend specialized in English literature of the Victorian period.

He had a number of published works on art and literature, including "John Davidson: Poet of Armageddon," "Charles Burchfield's Journals: The Poetry of Place" and "This New Man: A Discourse in Portraits."

He was editor and compiler of "Nineteenth Century American Painting and Painters."

During World War II, he served in the Office of Strategic Services in Europe.

He is survived by his wife of 48 years, the former Jeanette Rice; two daughters, Josephine Kaestner of Baltimore and Clarissa Townsend of New York City; two sons, Jackson of New Orleans and Rhys of Worcester, Mass.; a brother, Jackson of Myrtle Beach, S.C.; a sister Frances Townsend of Myrtle Beach; five grandchildren; two step-grandchildren; and a step-great-grandchild.