William P. Manitsas Memorial Award in Art

The Manitsas family and the Department of Art at SUNY Brockport established the William P. Manitsas Memorial Award in Art to honor the memory of William P. Manitsas, associate professor of art. Dr. Manitsas, a 1939 graduate of the Brockport Normal School, was a long-time favorite of his colleagues and students as a friend and an advisor.

After he graduated from high school in Batavia, he worked in his father’s store there for a year before entering Brockport as a general education student. He studied at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn following his Brockport graduation. He was drafted in 1941 and posted to New Guinea in 1942. There, he and three other soldiers were sent into the jungle to learn survival techniques from the natives so that they could teach those tactics to the rest of their unit. Dr. Manitsas served in the South Pacific for 39 months. He received his discharge as a sergeant in 1944.

He returned to Brockport after his discharge and earned his bachelor’s degree in 1945. He earned his master’s and doctoral degrees at Columbia University in New York City, returning to Brockport as a faculty member in 1947. Dr. Manitsas taught art, photography, art history, drawing, and painting. He was an active member of the faculty until his sudden passing in March 1983.

To qualify for the William P. Manitsas Memorial Award in Art, applicants must be sophomore or junior students enrolled in the Department of Art who have completed at least one academic semester in residence at Brockport and have a minimum Brockport GPA of 3.0. Applicants also must show a high level of artistic achievement with the potential for continuing study in their selected art discipline.