DICK'S TRAVEL TIDBITS

DICK SNYDER

J. Richard (Dick) Snyder.  b. Taft California, 1937;  Ph.D. (History) University of Colorado, 1966.  Member, Department of History, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (1966-2001). Academic focus:  The American Revolution; U.S. Foreign Policy; The American Presidency.

Publications of Note:

William S. Culbertson: In Search of a Rendezvous (Nov 1982). An Emporia, Kansas “project” of William Allen White, Culbertson went to Yale (B.A., Ph.D), then entered public service: United States Tariff Commission; Minister to Chile; Ambassador to Hungary.  Culbertson advocated adoption of the most-favored-nation treaty as the ideal framework for American commercial interests.

John F. Kennedy: Person, Policy, Presidency (Jul 1988). An edited collection of the formal presentations at the John Kennedy Conference (1986) which I funded with grants, private fund raising and considerable cooperation from participants.

From the perspective of time, (a favorite tactic of the historian), Allan Matusow’s essay seems particularly ill-timed: “Kennedy, the World Economy and the Decline of America”.  Through the same lens, Peter Charles Hoffer’s, “Kennedy and the Regeneration of America”, is the most thoughtful essay in the collection.

Director: Revenue Earning Summer Programs (1978-84)

Academic Summercamps: supervised employed faculty in offering special classes for high school and middle school students interested in laboratory science, literature, writing, art, music and dance. This responsibility expanded into supervision of all summer conference and specialty programs: 

Athletic Summercamps: basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, track, football

Adult Personal Development: literature; art; music; photography; pain management; performance clown techniques

ACADEMIC LIFE (1984-2001)

Organizer and Director of National Conference on John F. Kennedy, 1986. Featured Participants: Arthur Schlesinger Jr., James Meredith, Ted Sorenson, Walter Heller; contributing historians William E. Leuchtenberg, Bruce Mazlish, Allan J. Matusow and Peter Charles Hoffer.

Elected Chair of Department of History, 1988-1991, 1994-2001. University chairs essentially direct development of new curriculum, sooth the anxieties of faculty, and provide a supportive research and teaching environment for all of them.  We moved department emphasis from American History/European History to a World History curriculum required of all graduating students.  

Among the courses that I developed and taught during this timeframe were the following: American Economic History; The First American Revolution; The American West in History and Literature; The Vietnam War; American Foreign Policy after World War II. 

The course on the Vietnam War, offered with two lifelong colleagues, James Parker and William Pemberton, gave me opportunity to develop perspective on how individual personality affected presidential foreign policy after WW II.

Activities Since Retirement:

I retired and took up travel as an avocation following the 2001 death of my wife, Susan, (ALS).  In the years since, I have visited many parts of the United States, a dozen countries in Europe, and toured Latin America, China and Australia.  Throughout this period of travel I kept notes, photos and cultural materials and have developed an extensive series of essays which I have posted and keep on my “blog” site.  Return to home page and click on "Dick's Travel Blogs" .     

I remarried in 2003, and relocated to Bakersfield, California. In 2005, I became interested in writing lyrics and produced two albums:

            1.  Life’s True (2006), my lyrics featuring country, pop, folk and blues songs.  Link to album

   2. Merry Christmas From Malcomb (2007),  traditional, with        some of my music and lyrics for occcasional tracks.    Link to Album

         The title track, "Malcomb the Christmas Moose"  can be seen/heard on Utube at:

Link to video

Today, Linda and I live in the east hills of Bakersfield, near the Kern River Canyon, and I spend a lot of time walking, golfing and writing.

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