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School of Engineering

The Campaign for Engineering Legacy Funds

Lester Snyder, III (BSCE ’79) of Detroit holds the honor of not only creating one of the first Legacy Funds for the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, but his fund will also be remembered as the very first to be made in honor of a parent who is also a Pitt Engineering graduate. Snyder (at left in the photo) created the Engineering Legacy Fund in Honor of Lester C. Snyder, Jr., Established by Lester C. Snyder, III. His brother, George (at right in the photo) is also a Pitt grad (CAS ’82). Their father earned his BSCE in 1955.

Les Snyder, III is currently chief operating officer with Barton Malow, a leading construction services firm with offices throughout the U.S. and Mexico. In recognition of his career accomplishments and years of service and support to Pitt, he was recognized in 2001 with the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

He named his Legacy Fund in his father’s honor out of gratitude for encouraging him to also follow a career path into civil engineering and construction. His father worked for 30 years with Dravo Corporation’s contracting division. He attempted to start his engineering studies at Pitt but World War II resulted in a lengthy delay. He joined the ROTC Coast Artillery Unit in December 1942 but was soon called to active duty. He was called up along with 127 fellow Pitt ROTC students, and he still fondly remembers the Pitt Band playing at the railroad station to send them off to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He served in Europe for four years, but before he could resume his studies at Pitt, he was called to service again in 1950 for two years in Korea.

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