Snider High School

1964 – present (building opened 1966)

Founded: Snider began in the fall of 1964 with 325 sophomores, 20 faculty and four administrators, the first new public high school Fort Wayne had built in thirty-nine years. Its own building was not ready, so classes met on a half-day schedule at Chester T. Lane Junior High, 7:10 in the morning to 11:55, while construction finished on Fairlawn Pass; a fire during construction had delayed the work. Classes moved into the new building at 4600 Fairlawn Pass on 11 April 1966, before the gymnasium, auditorium, cafeteria and music rooms were complete, and the school was dedicated that fall, on 30 October 1966. Its first principal was Maurice Davis.

The building: The 1966 building cost four million dollars, designed by Martindale and Dahlgren for about 2,000 students, ten acres of building on a forty-acre campus, with language and science laboratories and a research center tied to the library. The largest addition since is athletic: Russ Isaacs Stadium, a $30 million on-campus stadium of 4,400 seats with a new track, opened in August 2026, named for longtime coach Russ Isaacs. Until then the football team had played its home games at Northrop's Spuller Stadium, as it had since the school opened.

Namesake: The school honors R. Nelson Snider, principal of South Side High School for thirty-seven years, 1926 to 1963. He served as president of the North Central Association in 1946-47 and was one of two men the association sent to inspect schools in the Far East. In 1937 he founded the student-aid fund that became Questa Education Foundation, which still finances northeast Indiana students today. He was introduced to the students of his namesake school on 22 November 1965. The record does not expand his first initial, and he was a principal, not a superintendent.

Growth: Enrollment was 781 in 1965 and 1,663 by 1975. Snider began with sophomores only, in an era when Fort Wayne high schools started at grade ten; its first freshman class came in 1972, when crowded junior highs pushed ninth grade up. Blackhawk and Lane middle schools feed it, and a small part of New Haven is zoned to Snider. The National Center for Education Statistics counted 1,927 students in 2024-25, close to the building's design capacity.

Programs: Snider's signature study was Project Lead The Way Biomedical Sciences, now carried inside the district's Schools of Success: Health Sciences and Human Services, Manufacturing, Engineering, Technology and Trades, and Business and the Arts. Freshmen enter in houses named Fortis, Integritas and Veritas. The robotics team has won FIRST rookie honors and reached the championship in Houston, the band program holds the ISSMA All-School Music Award across more than a decade, and the school keeps one of the district's largest libraries.

Athletics: The Panthers, in gold and black, play in the Summit Athletic Conference. The IHSAA record gives Snider three football state championships (1992, 2015 and 2023, the last a 33-6 defeat of Decatur Central), two in baseball (2006 and 2009, both won in eight innings) and the 1988 girls basketball title, won at 27-1 under coach Lamar Kilmer. Conference compilations credit the Panthers with further titles in boys track and field (1974), girls volleyball (1987 and 1991) and wrestling (2003).

Today: Snider is a Fort Wayne Community Schools high school for grades nine through twelve serving the north-central and northeast side. Its principal is Chad Hissong.

Sources:

1. Snider Safari yearbooks, 1966, 1975 and 1979: the start at Lane Junior High, the April 1966 move, enrollment growth and the namesake's career.
2. Questa Education Foundation, About Us: History: Snider's 1937 founding of the foundation.
3. Indiana High School Athletic Association: the 1992, 2015 and 2023 football titles, the 2006 and 2009 baseball titles and the 1988 girls basketball title.
4. WBCL and WPTA, August 2026: the Russ Isaacs Stadium dedication, its cost, seating and namesake.
5. Fort Wayne Community Schools, Snider High School: programs, feeder pattern and principal.
6. National Center for Education Statistics: 1,927 students, 2024-25.