NEW YORK — Alfred C. Snider, a scholar, rhetorician, and evangelist who sought to heal the world through debate — and who in the process turned bucolic Vermont into the argumentative center of the world — died Dec. 11 in Burlington, Vt. He was 65.
His death, from complications of pneumonia, was announced by the University of Vermont, where he was a professor of forensics and the longtime director of the university's debating team.
Considered one of the foremost debating teachers of his era, Mr. Snider — known for his florid shirts, ardor for argument and the enigmatic nickname "Tuna" — was renowned worldwide as a convener, coach, and judge of debating competitions and workshops.
At stake for young debaters, he often said, was the chance to advance academically, to improve communication skills and above all to attain cross-cultural understanding.
"My agenda is to fight back the darkness by trying to bring the light of human reason," he told the publication Seven Days in 2004. "I want to replace weapons with words. I want every citizen to be a debater."
Mr. Snider taught legions of students to argue through courses such as Persuasion, Presidential Campaign Rhetoric, and the Rhetoric of Reggae Music. Many became lawyers, or debate coaches themselves.
Under his stewardship, the university's debating team attacked questions that could range from whether the United Nations should offer bounties for capturing Somali pirates to whether women's sports should be guaranteed as much television time as men's.
In 2011, the Vermont team was ranked No. 7 in the world by the International Debate Education Association, ahead of Harvard, Stanford, and the London School of Economics. The team is now ranked 15th.
Mr. Snider was concerned in particular with endowing citizens of fledgling democracies with all the nonviolent weapons in the debater's arsenal. In 1982, he established what is now the World Debate Institute, which has brought international students, teachers, and coaches to Vermont for an annual summer boot camp.
He traveled to scores of countries — among them Qatar, Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and a spate of former Soviet republics — training debaters.
"I like to take debate where it's not," Mr. Snider said in the Seven Days interview. "Yeah, I've lectured at Oxford and Cambridge, but I don't really feel they need me to tell them that debate's cool and they should do it. They're all set. But I do like to go to Serbia, Chile, and Mongolia. My favorite countries are dictatorships in the process of falling.''