Former Dartmouth math professor Laurie Snell, one of the country's first probability theorists and a lover of tennis, music and the outdoors, died March 19 of acute leukemia at the age of 86, according his wife Joan Snell.
Focusing on probability and chance theory, Snell worked closely with top mathematicians during the 1950s, according to his colleague and former research assistant Bill Peterson '79, a math professor at Middlebury College.
"If you ever met him at a conference, or for a dinner, he would just regale you with these delightful stories from the early days of probability theory and the College's math department," Peterson said.
A passionate mathematician, Snell spent 42 years at the College as a math professor. During this time, he co-wrote several books on probability theory and started the Chance Project, a resource for those teaching courses in chance theory. He edited Chance News, the project's newsletter, but stopped approximately two months ago, according to Peterson.
At the height of the Chance Project, the College organized a conference of statisticians and probability experts, Peterson said. Snell was responsible for bringing in a wide range of individuals, including an professional gambler and a DNA fingerprinting expert.
After he officially retired from teaching in 1996, Snell remained "just as busy as any working professor," Peterson said.
"We used to joke that he never really retired," Peterson said. "He was always active."
Snell continued to go into his office in Kemeny Hall every day even after retiring, his wife said.
Snell made friends throughout his life wherever he went, according to Joan Snell. While riding the bus from his residence at the Kendal retirement home in Hanover to the College each day, he made a lasting impression on many fellow bus riders, she said.
"After he died, I got emails from people in the bus saying he was really friendly," she said.
Snell also cemented long-time friendships while serving as a visiting scholar at various universities across the world, ranging from Stanford University to the Sorbonne in Paris, according to his wife.
"We were in France for six months in 1960 and he was at [the] Sorbonne," she said. "His French was not very good but we made friends there."
While not teaching or conducting research, Snell enjoyed music and the outdoors, Joan Snell said.
Snell spent summers at his cabin on Isle Royale in Lake Superior, which was converted into a national park during the 1940s, he wrote on his website. He was one of the last leaseholders in the park and would often take graduate students with him on retreats to the island, according to Joan Snell.
Located in Norwich, Vt., Snell's yellow barn which he affectionately called his "music barn" was also very important to him, Joan Snell said.
"He turned the barn into what he called an opera house for amateur singers," she said. "We always wore yellow sweaters and had yellow chairs in the barn."
Snell also enjoyed poker, according to Joan Snell.
"He loved to play, but he was a probabilist poker player," she said.
Snell served as a "newspaper boy" growing up and later delivered The New York Times and The Dartmouth to members of the math department, Joan Snell said.
"It was very important to him," she said. "He got four copies of [The Dartmouth] one for [each of us], one for the next door neighbor and one for the big, round room in Kemeny. So his life just made a full circle."
