Canon Alfred D. Price Jr., a longtime lay leader in the Diocese of Western New York and an esteemed professor of urban and regional planning at the University at Buffalo, died May 2 at 75.
“His vocation as an urban planner, and his special concern for people struggling to make a home for themselves, were grounded in a deep faith in God,” said Bishop Sean Rowe of the Dioceses of Northwestern Pennsylvania and Western New York. “That faith, which shaped him as an intellectual, and as a leading figure in our church, also saw him through his final illness with courage and with grace.”
Price was a 10-time deputy to the Episcopal Church’s General Convention and served for decades on commissions and committees that helped to govern the church. For his service, he was presented with the Bishop Walter Decoster Dennis Award from the Union of Black Episcopalians in 2019 and named Canon Architect and Planner for the Diocese of Western New York and the Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania by Rowe in 2020.
His students learned about “form and function, planning and strategy, beauty and grace, and most importantly, that these only matter in as far as they serve others and our communities,” Rowe said in naming him a canon.
Price’s research, advocacy, and public service focused primarily on issues of affordable housing, and he took a special interest in the challenges facing the city of Buffalo where his father had served as manager of Willert Park, a historic public housing project later renamed A.D. Price Courts in his honor.
Price’s service to the church ranged from training acolytes in local parishes and teaching confirmation classes to consulting with vestries facing issues with property, church architecture, and renovation. Six bishops of Western New York relied on him for advice, Rowe said, especially in his role as the leader of the diocese’s architecture commission. He was an active member of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Eggertsville, where he was a licensed lay reader, worship leader, chalice-bearer, and convention delegate, leading the Easter Sunday morning procession with ribbon banners. In his spare time, Price was an avid golfer.
Price is survived by his wife, the Rev. Canon Barbara J. Price, four children and nine grandchildren.
Other Deaths
