Dayton Docket

Barth Snyder knew it could be done because he had seen it done before.

Snyder was a graduate of the University of Dayton School of Law in 1934. But it closed only a year later because of financial difficulties stemming from the Great Depression.

That didn’t stop Snyder from joining the University of Dayton as a professor in the School of Business Administration. He would later become Chairman of the Management Department.

But having experienced it firsthand, Snyder also understood the positives a law school could bring the University of Dayton and prospective students. So when a committee was formed in 1973 to investigate the feasibility of bringing the law school back, Snyder was a part of it.

“He loved teaching in the School of Business including some business law classes, but I think when the idea was floated to reopen the law school, he was full in,” says one of Snyder’s sons, John. “It was something he was thinking and dreaming of for a long time.”

The committee recommended reopening the law school and work was soon started on that task, with Snyder named as the planning coordinator.

“His love of law and love of UD were this perfect match,” John says. “He was thrilled to be part of it and spearhead the movement to get the law school going again.”

When the law school reopened on August 26, 1974, Snyder was one of the first six professors.

Professor Dennis Turner, who was also among those six and new to teaching law, says Snyder was like a mentor to him.

“Barth was the most wonderful human being you’d ever want to meet,” Turner says. “He was the soul of kindness and gentility. He encouraged me. As you might expect, your first time teaching you get your downs and he was really supportive of me.”

Students in the first class at the law school also quickly took a liking to him.

“He was such a nice man,” says Barbara Gorman ’77. “He went out of his way if someone had a problem, he’d work with them. He was very invested in the students learning what they had to learn and the school doing well.”

But even as he worked to get the school up and running, Snyder was sick with cancer. He died in March 1976, less than two years after the law school’s reopening.

“He was teaching up until two weeks before he died,” John says. “I think his love of the law school and love of teaching are what kept him going longer than he otherwise would have.”

Snyder’s contributions to the School of Law and its reopening are still remembered to this day. Classroom 115 in Keller Hall is named the Barth J. Snyder Classroom. A plaque on the wall of the classroom lets students know about Snyder’s service to UD and his vision of the possibilities a law school could bring.

“He’d be thrilled to see the campus today and the law school building itself,” John says. “That would blow him away.”