Earl Sneed's Place in History

When we received the latest edition of the Sooner Magazine, I was thrilled that there was an article about the 100th Year Anniversary of the OU Law School, since the school was a large part of my young life. My father, Earl Sneed, was dean of the Law School from the time I was in grade school until I graduated from OU in 1963. After my father returned from North Africa and Italy during WWII, he settled in Tulsa and thought that he would continue his life as a lawyer there, but the Law School was desperate for faculty, and my father decided to try his hand at being a professor.

Daniel Earl Sneed

We moved to Norman when I was about four, and he became a member of the faculty. He decided that a faculty member should have a PhD, and so I spent my first grade year in Connecticut while he did his course work at Columbia. He completed his PhD ten years later. When we returned to Norman, he was asked to be dean, and he stayed in that capacity for about 16 years. In 1963, my father handed degrees to both my brother Jim, who graduated from law school, and to me, who graduated with a BA in English. Soon after our graduations, he left the deanship and went to Liberty National Bank where he was vice president. My father was the dean for so long that many of Oklahomas lawyers graduated under his watch, including Andy Coats. We never went anywhere that someone didnt address him as Dean Sneed. I thought his legacy was a given and secure. You can imagine how disappointed I was that his name wasnt even mentioned in passing in Bob Burke and Justice Steven W. Taylors article, A Long Look Back. How quickly one is forgotten.

Today I received the fall edition of the Sooner Magazine. I always read it from cover to cover, and it brings back great memories of my days at OU. I particularly enjoyed the article about the Möller organ. WOW!

I grew up in southeastern Oklahoma, in the little town of Coalgate. Two weeks after graduating from Coalgate High School, I entered summer school at OU and studied there, summer and winter, for the next three years. I was in the class of 42, but after learning to fly in the CPT program while attending summer school in 1940, I decided to become a Flying Cadet in the Army Air Corps. The Army sent me to San Diego for flight training.

I left OU in March of 1941, was commissioned a 2nd Lt./pilot in October of that year, and served as an Army Air Corps pilot for the duration of World War II.

When that war ended, I settled in San Diego and have resided here for over 64 years. My wife and I were last on the OU campus five years ago for the 100th reunion of The Pride of Oklahoma. What a difference in the campus since the late 30s when I first became a university student! I am extremely proud of the University of Oklahoma and wish to compliment you and your staff on the quality of the Sooner Magazine.

What an excellent piece you did on the Möller Theatre Pipe organ. A friend of mine from Oklahoma sent it, and I read it cover to cover. Will have to get down to hear it. I love Möller organs, and there arent that many of their theatre organs left.

Thanks for reminding us all of the distinguished institutional history of the Sharp Years [Prologue, Spring 2009]. A period of turmoil and upheaval on Oklahomas universities campuses, it was a time of challenges of values, roles and mission. I joined the HSC campus faculty in 1973, at a time President Sharp was expanding the Medical Center and transitioning our campus to an academic health centerthe OU Health Sciences Center.

It was also my good fortune to pursue Ph.D. study in higher education on the Norman campus under Dr. Sharps direction, guidance and mentoring. As an historian, Dr. Sharps courses were always tempered by his own experiences in higher education and by events in the lives of American universities in the 1960s and 1970s. His quick wit, egalitarian intellect and grace, above all grace, distinguished him above all my professors and mentors. The epitome of a true gentleman and scholar, he will always hold a special place in my life and in the history of OU.

Thanks for reminding us all of his unique role in OUs history.

Those of us who work at the Sutton Avian Research Center are very appreciative of Anne Harps article in the most recent Sooner Magazine [Tuning in to Eagle Cam, Fall 2009]. Your readers might be interested to know that our partnership with OG&E Energy Corp., Atlas Computers and OneNet, which was discussed in the article, has received the 2009 Keep Oklahoma Beautiful Team Builder Award for the Eagle Cam Web project. The Team Builder Award honors those organizations who have worked together to achieve a goal of creating a more sustainable and beautiful Oklahoma in a unique way.

I was a staff writer for The Oklahoma Daily in 1958, and my question is the following: I am sure I recall that we buried a time capsule in front of the then-new J School building. I thought it was to be opened in 50 yearslast year. The problem is that I have not heard of its opening and can find no one who even remembers it. It was before LSD, so did I just dream that?

Items from the 1958 time capsule now reside in a display case in
journalism and mass communication's new home, Gaylord Hall.


Journalism alumnus and longtime OU administrator Paul Massad prepares
to remove the time capsule by first removing the dedication plaque from the
entryway wall in Copeland Hall.

Terry W. West
Shawnee, Oklahoma

Editors Note: You will be relieved to learn that, yes, in 1958 there was a time capsule assembled and buried by journalism students and faculty in the wall behind the dedication plaque in the Copeland Hall entryway. Fortunately someone kept notes, and the box was retrieved in time for last falls JayMac banquet. The contents were in remarkably good shape and are now displayed in a glass case in the north wing of Gaylord Hall, the spectacular new home of the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

The article [Tuning in to Eagle Cam, Fall 2009] is quite interesting but incorrect in stating that the eagle nest is in Stillwater or even the Stillwater Area.

The nest is located at the Sooner Lake Power Plant, which is located at Red Rock, Oklahoma. Please check the map which I have enclosed!

This area is 18 miles from Stillwater! The land areas for the correct towns should be correctly acknowledged.

D. M. Hopper
Norman, Oklahoma

Editors Note: Red Rock is the site of the lake and the nest. No slight to smaller towns intended, larger towns in the area are more easily geographically recognizable to the overall population, and their names are generally used. When everyone has a GPS, perhaps that custom will change.