University Names Snyder As Simmons' Successor in Public Health School Post

Dr. John C. Snyder will succeed the late James S. Simmons as dean of the School of Public Health, it was announced yesterday. Snyder has acted as assistant dean since last July, a month before Simmons' death.

The elevation of Snyder, who is professor of Microbiology, brought quick praise from the few professors available for comment last night. "I think I can speak for the school and call the appointment an excellent one," Dr. Frederick J. Stare. professor of Nutrition, commented. Most of the school's leading professors were in Buffalo at the annual convention of the American Public Health Association.

Since Simmons' death in August, Dr. Snyder has shared the duties of dean with Dr. Hugh Leavell, professor of Public Health. He and Snyder substituted this spring for the former dean during the latter's trip to the Far East.

"I learned about this officially today," Snyder said in Buffalo. "I haven't had time to make any specific plans and can only say that I will try to keep the school going in the way of Dean Simmons."

Reorganized School

Simmons reorganized the school after his appointment as Dean in 1946. Under his leadership the faculty and student body nearly tripled in size and the curriculum doubled. At his death he had a number of fund raising plans under consideration. Snyder said he was not in a position to comment on their continuation.

Dr. Snyder, who is 44, has been a professor and head of the Department of Microbiology since 1946. A native of Salt Lake City and graduate of Stanford, he has studied typhus and related diseases extensively. During World War II he worked as a member of the United States Typhus Commission to control epidermic typhus fever in the Middle East and Italy. His laboratory research led to the discovery of the first chemotherapeutic agent which was effective in curing typhus and other rickettsial diseases.

Stanford Graduate

After serving as typhus consultant for the American and French zones in Germany, Snyder studied the role of micro-organisms and insects in public health at the Rockefeller Foundation.

The new dean received his A.B. degree magna cum laude from Stanford in 1931, and four years later graduated from Harvard Medical School cum laude. He held a research fellowship in surgery while interning at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and was appointed a Junior Fellow of Harvard's Society of Fellows.