The Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets has dedicated the flagpole plaza between Lane Hall and Alumni Mall as the Peter Caldwell Snyder Flagpole Plaza.

A ceremony was held Sept. 22 as part of this year’s Corps Reunion events and attended by special guests, including university President Tim Sands.

Snyder was a member of the Corps of Cadets Class of 1958. He played for the basketball team, was a member of the corps’ G Company, and earned a bachelor’s degree in building construction from the College of Architecture and Urban Studies.

After serving in the U.S. Army, Snyder founded a successful construction business in Blacksburg in 1965. He died in 1977.

Through the naming, Snyder’s widow, Georgia Anne Snyder-Falkinham, found a way to honor Snyder’s legacy.

“Pete’s family hopes that this memorial will serve to remind students and cadets of the value of service to the university, community, and family for generations to come,” Snyder-Falkinham said.

That family includes children Michael and Stacy Snyder and grandchildren Justin and Julianne Snyder and Levi and Anna Mason. 

The plaza features a 90-foot flagpole and leads to a sidewalk in maroon-orange brick that forms the largest “VT” on campus to connect Lane, Pearson, and New Cadet halls. Here, the corps’ monuments to honor the past reside, along with the statue of Addison Caldwell, the university’s first student and cadet.

Snyder-Falkinham has been recognized as a member of the President’s Circle of the Ut Prosim Society, the 1872 Society, and the Pylon Society for her philanthropy to the university, including generous support to the Corps of Cadets, as well as the College of Architecture and Urban Studies, the Department of Building Construction, the Department of Athletics, the W. E. Skelton 4-H Educational Conference Center at Smith Mountain Lake, and the Department of Biological Sciences.

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