Thomas J. Reigstad is a professor emeritus of English at Buffalo State University and was a features writer and copy editor at the Buffalo Courier-Express, whose forerunner, the Buffalo Morning Express, was the newspaper co-owned and co-edited by Mark Twain from 1869 to 1871. Tom was also a copy editor and contributing writer at the Niagara Gazette, a columnist at Business First of Buffalo, and in the mid-1990s, the associate editor and a columnist at Bills Insider, the official magazine of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills.
While at Buffalo State, Tom received a faculty merit award from the Educational Opportunity Program; recognition for outstanding service from the Center for Development of Human Services; the Buffalo State President’s Award for Excellence in Research, Scholarship, and Creativity; and the Award for the Promotion of Respect for Diversity and Individual Differences (twice). He is a Twain scholar well known for his expertise on Twain’s association with Buffalo and an experienced college writing program administrator, researcher, and teacher. He earned a B.A. in English from the University of Buffalo, an M.A. in literature from the University of Missouri, an M.S. in English education from Canisius University, and a Ph.D. in English instruction (composition/rhetoric) from the University of Buffalo.