Deceased September 9, 2002
View alumni profile (log in required)
In Memory
It saddened us to learn just before our 35th-year Reunion of Bryan Schneider’s death over five years ago. Even in a time when so many of us may come to the circumstances of parents aging painfully or passing on, the loss of a peer and a friend is hard. With almost no details about his passing, we did hold memories to be conveyed, and we communicated with his brother in Florida.
Bryan came to Amherst from South Carolina, having had little exposure even to New England, much less Amherst, prior to his application process. He was unashamed to repetitively assert himself as a Gamecock fan, even in the company of a majority of northern fraternity brothers, albeit with a few dissenting Georgia Bulldogs and North Carolina Tarheels sprinkled in. Football and basketball were common ground and a bond that transcended all state lines.
He was strikingly good looking with a white smile from 10 yards. And, with the lilt in his voice, he often would be seen at events with the most beautiful woman in the building. His intelligence was overt, his articulation a strong point and fine example. He thought at a high level and was persuasive in casual debates. I recall seeing one of his papers in an English course when it was in the typewriter, called “Donne and Un-Donne,” on which he ultimately received an A+ from a professor who rarely gave those out, perhaps Chickering. I aspired to the word crafting and revered the strength of argument. The thesis may eventually have found its way into the house bank safe’s drawer full of exemplary papers.
He played. Just as he had on his hometown Little League baseball team that went on to win the state championship. He played a good game of intramural football, with enthusiasm and certain speed that overshadowed his hands, the capabilities of which were occasionally a bit more like feet. He played an intense game of poker, albeit rarely: Always focused, always eyes down, ever conservative, to the point of cautious. His habit of pensive, nervous twirling of a lock of hair before calling a bet was uniquely annoying and oddly memorable now. He took nickels and dimes from many of us, who played too often.
Brian attended the University of South Carolina law school right after Amherst, where he became an editor of their law review. He practiced law with a firm in Dallas for several years. He returned to school, matriculating at Yale Law School to earn his master's with his eye on teaching. He taught at Indiana University law school in Indianapolis, where he was voted the most popular teacher one year. Bryan left academics in the Peter Fischer style, under the infamous publish-or-perish statutes, but continued his career as an attorney for Blue Cross in Indiana. After further career moves to a finance company in Pittsburgh and then a small law firm, he had a breakdown. He moved to Noonan, Ga., where he lived until his death. And at Amherst, too, we recall there was a depression, and all its attendant mysteries, and we hurt. I don’t think we knew to be sufficiently concerned as we might easily now. Someone pulled him away from the roof once in a dark time for him, which was just so incredibly unfathomable. We listened as he relayed summaries of what seemed cosmic diatribes with Haskell Coplin, long before there was any student help office. Only in the hindsight of loss do we recall that he had gloom and pessimism with him many times. There is no fine cause for any demise, we reach to hope and wish for this passing with life ease present, and not pain for him.
We last saw him at graduation, which makes me contrite. We lost him then. Brothers are harshest to lose. We will remember Bryan well.
John Lacey ’73