Barbara G. Sniffen

from the November 4th, 2003 Oshkosh Northwestern

Barbara Greenwood Sniffen of Oshkosh died suddenly on October 30, 2003, while attending a WFT (Wisconsin Federation of Teachers) conference in Wausau. She was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on October 21, 1927, the daughter of John and Katherine Winslow Greenwood. Her mother took her home to Wolf Point, Montana when she was a few days old. She was graduated from Wolf Point High School, and received a B.A. degree with honors from the University of Montana in Missoula. She attended the University of Wyoming in Laramie and taught for two years at a one-room schoolhouse on the Sweetgrass Hills in Montana. Turning down a job in the office of the State Superintendent of Education, she taught high school for several years in Missoula and there entered a teacher exchange program that took her to The Netherlands where she taught at a girl's high school in Rotterdam. She decided to seek a Ph.D. degree and was admitted to the European History program at Tulane University in New Orleans. To conduct research for her doctoral dissertation on governmental aspects of the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands during World War II, she traveled back to Holland where she expanded and renewed contact with her wide circle of Dutch colleagues and friends. She was awarded a Ph.D. and joined the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh History Department faculty in 1965. She married John Kenneth Sniffen of the University's Art Department in 1967, and, in 1968, had a son, J. Matthew (Tys) Sniffen.

In the 1970s she was laid off from her tenured faculty position at UW-Oshkosh, and, in response, struggled for over a decade for her own and other faculty members' reinstatement. During that time of professional crisis, she became actively involved with WFT and TAUP (The Association of University Professionals), and developed a policy, aggressively pursued for the remainder of her life, of advocating faculty rights and the rule of law in the face of administrative authoritarianism and unfair practices.

During this layoff period she held numerous temporary positions, including teaching History at the women's prison in Fond du Lac and serving as one of the first directors of the UW-Oshkosh Women's Studies Program, for which she initiated a statewide women's studies conference that has continued to the present time.

Also during that period she was diagnosed with breast cancer, underwent surgery and extended treatment, continued to work and, through it all, established a model of healthy response to crisis by openly discussing the disease and insisting that she and her friends and family deal with it without hysteria or despair. She later had a second cancer surgery and, as before, faced it with courage and wit. When Barbara was reinstated at the University she became an active leader of the Faculty Senate, TAUP and WFT and continued, as before, an unapologetic liberal dedicated to the needs of faculty in distress, regularly practicing her favorite maxim: "Dare to speak truth to power."

When she retired from the University in 1995, she remained active in WFT. She became a leader of the local Democratic Party and continued her dedication to the work of the First Presbyterian Church. She traveled widely and regularly in Europe and became a passionate genealogist and family historian. For her 70th birthday, her son arranged a festive party that was attended by a large international gathering of family and beloved friends who came together to celebrate her unique contribution to their lives.

Barbara was always zealous about fitness and healthy living. Proud of her Scottish ancestry, and ever frugal, she was fond of repeating: "A McTavish is never lavish." Though she had no qualms about acquiring special treasures that enriched her life, she was also known to hunt through curbside rejects on garbage collection day for household items with potential and good lines. She was skilled and versatile — refinishing furniture, rewiring lamps, constructing fences and decks, making jellies and preserves, sewing, cooking and developing computer skills. She was an avid gardener who found great joy in copious perennial borders. A multilingual intellectual with a droll sense of humor, she was an omnivorous reader, prolific writer and challenging teacher. She listened to NPR, whizzed through crossword puzzles and punctuated her conversation with humorous anecdotes and lore from a long life well lived. She entertained and nurtured loved ones with attention, care, generosity, practical advice and sumptuous holiday feasts.

Barbara is survived by her husband Ken, son Matthew, and siblings Mary Greenwood Schuler and Jack and Bill Greenwood.

The funeral service will be at the First Presbyterian Church in Oshkosh on Thursday, November 6, at 4 p.m. In lieu of flowers, a memorial fund is being established.