Lynne Snyder Abel, former associate dean for undergraduate education in the College of Arts and Sciences, died in her Ithaca home Nov. 29 from complications of multiple myeloma. She was 66. Until Nov. 10 she had been teaching a course in classics as an associate professor.

"Working in several Arts College administrations over the last quarter of the 20th century, Lynne Abel was the principal force behind both the preservation and the renewal of liberal arts education at Cornell," said Philip Lewis, professor of romance studies and former dean of the college. "A fine humanist scholar herself, she staunchly defended academic principle and at the same time gave unstintingly of herself to students, staff and faculty in need of guidance and moral support. Having someone of her wisdom and stature at the helm of undergraduate education in Arts and Sciences was a singular blessing for the alma mater she cherished."

Born in Los Angeles, Abel '62, met her husband, John, while attending Cornell. He is now Cornell professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering. She earned her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in classics from Stanford University.

Abel joined Cornell in 1974 as an assistant to the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences supervising the College Scholar and Independent Major programs; she later also became an adjunct faculty member in classics. In 1977, she was named associate dean for undergraduate education, a position she held until her retirement in 2003. She supervised the college's Academic Advising Center and Office of Records and Scheduling and chaired faculty committees on educational policy and academic records.

Abel's handbook for parents of first-year students has become a model for other colleges. At the start of each academic year, she conducted an orientation for parents of incoming students that became legendary. In the 1990s she took a leadership role in improving conditions for lecturers and implemented a nationally innovative merger of the offices of advising and admissions to serve better the needs of students.

Abel usually taught one course per year in the classics department. Her book on "Prokrisis" in Athenian Law was published in 1983. Jeffrey Rusten, acting chair of classics, said, "She served us as an energetic (and of course magnificently knowledgeable) director of undergraduate studies up to the end of her life."

Abel was also a longtime member and supporter of the Women's Studies Program and a lifetime believer in the value of recognizing and enabling the significant gifts and abilities of women alongside those of men.

Memorial donations can be made to Ithaca Hospicare, the Finger Lakes Land Trust or the Snyder Cornell Tradition Fellowship (Cornell University, P.O. Box 2600, Ithaca, NY 14851), established by Abel and her mother. Her family said that blood donations to the Red Cross would honor her memory and her family's commitment to the community.