Dr. Paul J. Reiss
Paul J. Reiss, who served as Saint Michael’s College’s 14th president from 1985 to 1996, died February 28 at age 93 in his longtime home of Lake Placid, NY, with two sons by his side.
He and his late wife, Rosemary, were deeply committed to the Saint Michael’s community and mission, both during and after his tenure as president, and they retained an apartment in Vermont even after Paul retired.
When he became president of Saint Michael’s in 1985, Paul started teaching again and committed to getting close to the students in part by building a president’s home on campus and donating it to the College – Reiss House, so named in his honor. He oversaw the renovation or new construction of 80 percent of Saint Michael’s buildings and facilities, including the library and office computers, and led the faculty in recommitting to its mission and Catholic identity.
As his family wrote in his obituary, Paul Reiss “was an accomplished educator, administrator, and generous community leader and volunteer. He was a humble intellectual with a gentle manner, and a model husband and father of nine. A man of deep Christian faith, Paul was disciplined, thoughtful, and generous to people of diverse ages and backgrounds with his time, guidance, and attention. He was especially devoted to Rosemary, his best friend and late wife of 67 years and a hands-on partner in raising their large family.”
The obituary continues with details of Paul’s life, noting he was third of six children, attended St Bernard’s School in Saranac Lake, was a Boy Scout, and took his first job as paper boy for the Adirondack Daily Enterprise. After graduating from LaSalle Military Academy on Long Island, he attended Saint Michael’s, spent a year in seminary, and then transferred to Holy Cross College where he earned his bachelor’s degree. He earned his master’s in sociology at Fordham University and went on to Harvard to work on his doctorate. It was there he met Rosemary Agnes Donohue a student at Emmanuel College, and they married in 1955. Taking a job teaching sociology at Marquette University in 1957, Paul moved his family to Wisconsin.
In 1959, Paul took over the hosting of a new summer camp in Lake Placid for inner-city New York City middle school boys. For the next 50-plus years, honoring his father’s request, he sustained and administered all aspects of the program, and added a girls’ program in 1993. The summer camp, together with the Nativity Mission Center in Manhattan, served as the model for the development of a nationwide network of over 50 Nativity Miguel schools. The Reiss Foundation camps now include a St. Agnes Day Camp and continue to run under the leadership of family members of the next two generations.
In 1963, Paul was appointed to the faculty of Fordham and became chairman of the Sociology Department, and dean of the College at Lincoln Center, and then academic vice president in the early 1970s. For over a decade, he served as executive vice president of Fordham University, attending to all aspects of a diverse university with multiple campuses. In the late 1970s and early ’80s, he commuted weekly every summer between the Bronx and Lake Placid.
A lover of the outdoors, Paul taught his kids to ski, and he enjoyed cross-country skiing through his mid-80s. He taught all his children to play tennis, paddle a canoe, hike a mountain, and sail a sunfish. He also never stopped giving his children and grandchildren encouragement, wise counsel, and support for all their athletic, academic, and professional endeavors.
Paul played piano amazingly well by ear, often delighting friends, family, and strangers. He sang with gusto, including in the St. Agnes Choir at his Lake Placid home parish He also served as a lay reader and Eucharistic minister at St. Agnes.
Paul was a representative to the 1989 Vatican consultation that refined the role of religion in Catholic higher education. He was honored to meet Pope John Paul II and invite him to “come skiing in Vermont.” Named 1996 Vermont Distinguished Citizen of the Year, Paul was awarded honorary degrees from Middlebury College and Showa University of Japan. His published works in sociology address family issues, higher education, and moral values in Catholic education.
When Paul retired from Saint Michael’s in 1996, he and Rosemary kept an apartment in Vermont where they could “winter” away from the Adirondacks and remain active at the College and the larger Burlington community.
Paul published his book Dad, about the life of his beloved father, Julian J. Reiss, which covered both youthful adventures and Julian’s pioneering work in profit sharing, social justice, and civil rights. Paul co-founded Mercy Care for the Adirondacks in 2007 and was its first president, and then was board chairperson. He was a friendship volunteer for more than 10 years, providing personal transportation to local elders.
As president of the Lake Placid Sinfonietta and board member for many years, he and Rosemary almost never missed a Wednesday evening concert in the park with grandchildren or a Sunday concert at the Arts Center. Paul eagerly pursued landscaping, gardening, tree work, and the constant hands-on upkeep of camp facilities in addition to a decades-long battle against beavers damming the outlet brook and flooding the property.
Paul is survived by three daughters, six sons, and extended family, including granddaughter Elizabeth “Liz” Reiss M’16. Also, he was cousin of the late esteemed Saint Michael’s English Professor John Reiss P’79, P’84, P’92, P’94 and John’s surviving children, former Saint Michael’s English professor Joan Wry ’79, P’10, the Hon. Christina Reiss ’84, Connie Reiss-Esmay ’92, M’13, and Katherine Brunelle’94.
A Mass of Christian Burial for Paul was celebrated Saturday, March 16 at Saint Agnes Church in Lake Placid, with members of the Society of Saint Edmund and other Saint Michael’s College representatives present. Also, a Memorial Mass was celebrated the morning of April 12, 2024, in the Chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel on campus. Rev. Richard Myhalyk, S.S.E. ’66, a member of the Saint Michael’s Board of Trustees, was principal celebrant and homilist at the Mass, with members of the Society of St. Edmund concelebrating. A reception followed in the Edmundite Dining Room, including trustees who were on campus that day for a meeting.
Donations in Paul’s memory may be made to Mercy Care for the Adirondacks or Saint Michael’s College/Nativity scholarship Fund.