Rod Snelling made a difference in the world through his devotion to private-independent school education. His leadership at Independent School Management will be sorely missed.
He pioneered innovative concepts that led to the founding of our company, the first analysis firm in the United States dealing exclusively with private-independent schools.
Since ISM’s inception, thousands of administrators and schools in North America and abroad have benefited from his theory, research, and analysis.
A graduate of Deerfield Academy (MA), Rod first witnessed private school management under the leadership of legendary Deerfield School Head, Frank Boyden. Rod went on to Bowdoin College and married Anne Kurtz after they graduated. Rod joined the army and had two children, Roxanne and Glenn, and pursued his doctorate in education from the University of Virginia.
Rod and Anne were a team—first as teachers, and then leading two schools, Detroit Country Day School (MI) and The Tatnall School (DE). As the Headmaster of Detroit Country Day, he was the youngest School Head in the country at the time.
While Head at Tatnall, he created a seven-term schedule to make more efficient use of time, space, and personnel. While the program, Nova, only lasted a few years, his vision was 50 years ahead of its time—this type of scheduling system has now been adopted by private-independent schools across the country, providing students a “21st Century” education.
In 1974, Rod and Anne cofounded Independent School Management in Wilmington, DE (where the firm still maintains its headquarters). When asked what inspired him to start ISM, he said, “I’d been frustrated by the lack of research for administrators of independent schools. I was making decisions by the seat of my pants.” He assumed most School Heads and administrators were in the same boat.
While at Tatnall, he started doing his own research, and his colleagues began asking him to share his results and advice. He rightly believed that providing such needed research and theory would be a worthwhile venture.
Before founding ISM, Rod began, with approval from the Board of Trustees at Tatnall, publishing an advisory letter, Ideas & Perspectives (I&P). After a time, he decided to leave the headship at the school to devote all of his time to the fledgling business.
Rod started ISM with I&P at the company’s core—and it is still the foundation of the firm. As the popularity of the advisory letter grew, he assembled a small team to facilitate production and distribution from Anne and Rod’s home. It truly was a “homegrown” business dedicated to the advancement of private-independent schools.
From the beginning, Rod was asked to visit schools that wanted deeper conversations and his suggestions for their specific situations. This led to further growth of the company as the market demand increased. ISM began to develop a staff to offer consultation services, workshops and seminars, and insurance products specific to independent schools. “It’s really one-stop shopping,” Rod said.
One area of early popularity was Rod’s unique and perceptive views on school scheduling. In fact, the first summer workshop ISM hosted was on scheduling, attesting to the popularity of the topic and the need for schools to find strategic scheduling solutions.
Known internally as the “Scheduling Guru,” Rod used his considerable creative and analytical skills to look deep into each school’s needs and recommend options that fit its program, personnel, spatial, and time constraints. He always maintained ISM’s goal of a student-centered environment. Out of this came ISM's powerful scheduling software, ScheduLogic.
Rod’s contributions were—and still are—of tremendous impact to the world of private education. We will miss him dearly.
