Remembering President Kenneth G. Ryder

Hearing of President Ryder’s passing earlier this week inspired a short written acknowledgement to commemorate all that he did for the University and for Snell Library. Kenneth Ryder served as President of Northeastern for fourteen years (1975-1989) when he founded and established many important programs, colleges and units that are now fully incorporated into Northeastern’s rapidly growing academic curriculum. These include the College of Computer Science, the Marine Science Center in Nahant, the Center for the Study of Sport in Society, and the Executive MBA program. In addition, President Ryder led the campaign for the new Snell Library building, securing the funding from individuals, corporations, as well as the federal government, in order to open the new library in 1990. The building was certainly an upgrade from the original campus library in Dodge Hall and offers four floors of academically rich content, resources, and services. Today, Snell Library welcomes over 1.9 million visits per year and is undergoing some exciting new renovations, as many have already seen, as part of the Digital Media Commons. I’d like to say, “thank you President Ryder!” for leading these initiatives and showing others how important a state-of-the-art academic library is to an institution like Northeastern. The photos below are provided by the University Archives & Special Collections located in 92 Snell Library. Many more are available on their website for Northeastern Historical Photographs.