Franklyn Bliss Snyder

Who was Franklyn Bliss Snyder?

Franklyn Bliss Snyder was the 18th President of Northwestern University and an American scholar of Scottish literature. Snyder was the son of a Congregational minister, Peter Miles Snyder, from Connecticut and grew up in Rockford, Illinois. He received his undergraduate degree from Beloit College and a Ph.D. in English from Harvard University in 1909. Snyder's dissertation was on Robert Burns and was published as The Life of Robert Burns in 1932. Snyder joined the Northwestern faculty in 1909, became dean of the Graduate School in 1934, and was elected president of the University in 1939, succeeding Walter Dill Scott. Snyder is remembered as being an ardent conservative and uncompromising administrator.