HISTORICAL NOTE:

The Otto W. Snarr collection was the product of two Works Progress Administration projects conducted between November 1938 and October 1939 under Snarr’s supervision. The first project attempted to “collect and tabulate all records pertaining to the State Teacher’s Collect, Mankato, Minnesota” and was sponsored by Mankato State Teachers’ College. The second project, sponsored by the Minnesota Historical Society, was for the purpose of “re-arranging and repairing county historical collections.” Charlotte Stahn and Fred Rose researched and typed both projects under Snarr’s direction.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE:

Otto Welton Snarr was born 6 August 1886 at Inkerman, West Virginia. He taught school in rural West Virginia between 1906 and 1909. In 1912, Snarr completed normal college at Shepherdstown, West Virginia. He worked as the superintendent of schools at Romney, West Virginia between 1912 and 1914. Snarr earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of West Virginia in 1917. In 1917 after serving as a school’s principal and teaching college courses in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and in Chicago, Snarr finished his Master of Arts degree from the University of Chicago in 1919. He completed his doctorate in 1941 from the same university.

Snarr was hired by Mankato State Teachers’ College in 1920 to direct the school’s professional education department. He held the position at MSTC until 1941 when he became the president of Moorhead State Teachers’ College at Moorhead, Minnesota. Snarr remained at Moorhead until 1955 when he retired and returned to Romney, West Virginia. He died on 21 November 1966 at Romney.