A Burr Ridge businessman will take over immediately to fill a vacancy left on the College of DuPage Board of Trustees after former Trustee Jane M. Herron resigned abruptly during a Jan. 18 meeting.

Trustees unanimously approved Joseph T. Snyder, owner of Snyder Insurance Services and Snyder Financial Services of Darien, to fill out the rest of Herron’s term, which runs to April 2009, said Brian Kleemann, a COD spokesman, during a special board meeting Feb. 27.

Snyder was one of 26 applicants for the job. Others included John Berley, assistant village manager for Addison; Mark Pfefferman, a Glen Ellyn village trustee; and Theresa A. Dear, president of the DuPage County chapter of the NAACP.

The area businessman has owned Snyder Insurance Services for 26 years and Snyder Financial Services for five years.

“COD always impressed me as a great school,” Snyder said, adding that he would have attended COD if he hadn’t received a basketball scholarship from Joliet Junior College. “They turn out unbelievable quality.”

Snyder decided to give it a try after seeing a board vacancy notice in a local newspaper and discussing the move with his wife.

“I’m a businessman. I’m in risk management. I hope the board can use whatever talent I have,” he said. “(But) I in no way want to be the star of the show.”

The board placed a notice that it was looking for candidates for the spot more than a month ago.

Board members also voted Tuesday night for Trustee Kathy Wessel of Wheaton to serve as Snyder’s mentor on the board.

Herron, a board member for nine years, left over differences with other board members and her concern for where the board was heading.

In a letter to board Secretary Kay Neely and Chairman Micheal McKinnon, the Woodridge resident accused fellow board members of disregarding professional opinions of the administration and handing out work contracts to companies she said did not do a good job.

Some of those six-figure contracts were over the college’s budget, she said in her resignation letter.