John Schnorrenberg

John Martin Schnorrenberg (born December 1, 1931 in Brooklyn, New York; died October 14, 2022 in Columbia, Maryland) was an art historian and former chair of the UAB Department of Art and Art History.

John was the son of Episcopal priest Rudolph Hubert Schnorrenberg and his wife, the former Laura Schaeffer, an actor who immigrated from Dresden, Germany. His parents were divorced in 1932 due to his father's alcoholism. He and his mother moved Laura to the home of his great aunt Sarah, the recent widow of former North Carolina attorney general Theodore Davidson in Asheville. The large house also accommodated other members of her extended family and several boarders, including actor Charlton Heston, then director of the Asheville Community Theater.

Laura's father, Wilhelm, a former German officer, lived with them until he was interred at the beginning of World War II. Barred from their Lutheran congregation, the family was welcomed by All Souls' Episcopal Parish. Schnorrenberg completed primary school at Christ's School in Arden, North Carolina in 1949 and earned his bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, where he was mentored by Clemens Sommer. He was drafted for service in the Korean War, but failed his physical due to poor eyesight. He found work as an instructor at the Patterson School in Lenoir, North Carolina before enrolling in the Master of Fine Arts program at Princeton University.

After earning that degree in 1957 he worked as an instructor at Columbia University, and was later recruited by Joseph Sloane to join the faculty at the University of North Carolina. He completed his Ph.D. at Princeton in 1964, submitting a dissertation entitled "Early Anglican Architecture, 1558–1662: Its Theological Implications and Its Relation to the Continental Background." At North Carolina he was promoted to associate professor in [[1966] and to full professor in 1973.

Schnorrenberg came to Birmingham in 1976 to teach art history at UAB and to chair the university's art department. Schnorrenberg's areas of expertise included medieval art and modern architecture, Gothic architecture, ancient Greek and Roman architecture and architecture in Alabama and the Southeastern United States. He curated a special exhibition of drawings by the architectural firm of Warren, Knight & Davis at the Birmingham Museum of Art in 1999. He retired from UAB in 2002. The John Schnorrenberg Endowed Scholarship for Art History was established in his honor.

Schnorrenberg was a member and former director of the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians and the Southeastern Nineteenth Century Studies Association. He was president of the Southeastern College Art Conference for five years, and also a member of the American Medieval Academy, the Society of Architectural Historians, and the American College Art Association. The Schnorrenbergs' family papers are archived at the Wilson Special Collections Library at the University of North Carolina.

Schnorrenberg and fellow historian Barbara Wolff Brandon were married on July 7, 1962 in Chapel Hill. They had two children, David and Katherine. After retiring the Schnorrenbergs relocated to Alexandria, Virginia to be closer to their children. They both taught classes at the Arlington Center for Senior Learning. Barbara died in 2013 from complications related to colon cancer surgery. Schnorrenberg relocated to Bethesda, Maryland in 2015, then to a senior living facility in Kensington, Maryland. During the COVID-19 pandemic he rented an apartment across the hall from his daughter in Columbia, Maryland. He died in 2022 and was survived by his children and four grandchildren. He was buried in a family plot at Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Publications

• Folda, Jaroslav & John M. Schnorrenberg (1971) A Medieval Treasury from Southeastern Collections. University of North Carolina
• Schnorrenberg, John M. (1999) Remembered Past, Discovered Future: The Alabama Architecture of Warren Knight & Davis, 1906-1961. Birmingham: Birmingham Museum of Art. ISBN 0931394430
• Schnorrenberg, John M. & Janice Ford-Freeman (1999) Walking Tours of Birmingham Churches Conducted from 1990 to 1999. Birmingham Historical Society
• Schnorrenberg, John M. (2000) Aspiration: Birmingham's Historic House of Worship. Birmingham: Birmingham Historical Society ISBN 0943994268

References

• "Barbara W. Brandon Married To John M. Schnorrenberg." (July 8, 1962) The New York Times
• "John Schnorrenberg" funeral program (October 29, 2022) St Peter's Episcopal Church, Ellicott City, Maryland - accessed May 7, 2024