Goldman has written history books on Buffalo for four decades and helped write the first guide to the city’s then underrated historic buildings.
“One of the things that has always motivated me is that – and I learned this in Buffalo – the more connected you are to your past, the more likely you are to be involved in its future,” Goldman said.
Count Rep. Brian Higgins among Goldman admirers.
Higgins used Goldman’s “High Hopes: The Rise and Decline of Buffalo, NY” for a course he created and taught for seven years at SUNY Buffalo State called Economic History of Buffalo and Western New York. When Higgins was elected to Congress, he asked Goldman to teach in his place.
“We are lucky to have Mark Goldman,” Higgins said. “He came here as a student decades ago, then he got to know our city and helped us get to know it better, more intimately and lovingly.”
Melissa Brown, executive director of the Buffalo History Museum, called Goldman a “wonderful historian.”
“Drawing on his own experiences, Mark makes the story accessible and engaging. It’s one of his best traits,” said Brown.
Goldman writes about her childhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where her father was a successful women’s coat maker and her mother was active in civic activities.
