MUHS Establishes Scholarship Fund For Late-Night L

Marquette University High School announced the establishment of the Thomas J. Snyder Scholarship Fund. The fund honors Alumnus Tom Snyder, a pioneer of late-late network TV talk shows who graduated from Marquette High in 1953. Snyder died in 2007, leaving a gift to the school that established an endowed scholarship fund. The fund will help support future students who demonstrate financial need and who participate in the arts during their time at MUHS.

“We are delighted that Tom remembered Marquette High by establishing this scholarship fund,” said the Rev. Warren Sazama, S.J., president of Marquette University High School. “We are proud to have such an illustrious alumnus.”

Snyder’s brother John, from MUHS class of 1960, wrote to Father Sazama and said that “Both Tom and I have a special place in our hearts for MUHS. We would both say, in conversation, that those were the best four years of education we received.”

Born in Milwaukee to Frank and Marie Snyder, Snyder attended St. Agnes Grade School before coming to Marquette High. He also attended Marquette University. He began his career as a radio reporter in Milwaukee in the 1960s, and then moved into local television news, anchoring newscasts in Philadelphia, New York and Los Angeles before moving to late night.

Snyder was best remembered for his long-running program The Tomorrow Show which aired on NBC and followed Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show from 1973 to 1982. He also gained fame in his heyday when comedian Dan Aykroyd spoofed him in the early days of Saturday Night Live. His last stint on network television was on The Late Late Show on CBS during the 1990s.