Dixie State University will host Dr. Donald R. Snow as he presents “Erastus Snow’s Life and Family from their Personal Letters” at the President’s Colleagues of DSU meeting. The meeting will begin at noon on Monday, Dec. 7, in Lecture Hall 156 of Dixie State’s Russell C. Taylor Health Science Center, located on the Dixie Regional Medical Center’s River Road campus at 1526 Medical Center Drive. The meeting is free and open to the public.
Dr. Snow’s great-grandfather, Erastus Snow, traveled extensively for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, writing and receiving many letters during his lifetime. Donald Snow and his family have compiled, transcribed, edited, and posted to uvtagg.org as many of the apostle’s letters as they could find. Their online collection now contains more than 200 of Erastus Snow’s personal and family letters that depict his life and travels. The collection does not include Erastus Snow’s official church and business correspondence, as the family hasn’t started transcribing those letters, which number in the hundreds.
Donald Snow is a retired professor of mathematics from Brigham Young University. He also taught and researched math at universities in Minnesota, Colorado, Ontario, Canada, Peru, and London. He has bachelor’s degrees from the University of Utah and master’s degrees from Stanford University in mathematics and mechanical engineering and a doctorate degree in mathematics from Stanford.
After Don and his late wife, Diane, both retired from BYU, they served four Family History Missions for the LDS church. Donald Snow has been involved with family history for many years and has been a vice president of the Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group since the 1990s.
Donald Snow—whose father, Eldon Stafford Snow, was in the first graduating class of Dixie College in 1913—is a snowbird between Provo and St. George and a frequent speaker at genealogy and family history venues. His family history class schedule, notes, and articles are available online.
The President’s Colleagues of Dixie State University, established more than 20 years ago by former DSU President Dr. Douglas Alder, is a group of retired professors and other professionals who live mostly in the St. George and Washington County area. The colleagues meet from noon to 1 p.m. on the first Monday of each month of the academic year to hear presentations from each other and/or invited guests. The series will continue on Jan. 4 when psychologist Dick Harper presents “Journey of the Hero: The Stages of Life.”
