Snedeker, Lendon

Lendon Snedeker, M.D., was born on 10 Oct. 1904 in Brooklyn, N.Y. He was the son of Edwin L. and Louise S. (Atwater) Snedeker. He attended Harvard University where he received an A.B. degree in 1925, M.D. degree in 1929, and M.P.H. (Master's of Public Health) degree in 1934. After leaving Harvard University, he continued his training at the Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital where he served as a Medical House Officer from 1929 until 1930. In 1931, Snedeker went to Children's Hospital as a House Officer. He served in this role until 1933 when he became a Rockefeller Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health. After completing his training, Snedeker spent nine years in private practice as a pediatrician. He returned to Children's Hospital in 1948 as Assistant to the General Director, Guy Brugler, M.D. This followed service with the Allied Command in Italy during World War II and a post as Executive Secretary of the Massachusetts Study of Child Health Services. Snedeker served as Assistant to the General Director for twenty-one years until his retirement in 1969. During that time, he became the hospital's historian-in-residence and wrote One Hundred Years at Children's (Boston: Children's Hospital, 1969) in honor of the hospital's centennial. In addition to his administrative duties, Snedeker was an Instructor in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and an Associate in Medicine in the Child Health Division at Children's. Snedeker also served as Chairman of the Health Division of United Community Services and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Easter Seal Society. Snedeker innovated the Boston Poison Information Center and helped found the Council on Social Data Systems. Lendon Snedeker died in 1973.

Snedeker (Harvard, M.D. 1929) was assistant director of Children's Hospital, Boston, from 1948 to his retirement in 1969. He was also a director of the Society for Crippled and Handicapped Children. He was a member of the Massachusetts and the American Public Health Associations, the American Board of Pediatrics, and the New England Pediatric Association.