Kaye Elizabeth Bachesnyder

Kaye Bache-Snyder, poet, novelist, journalist, and former professor, passed away on May 6th, 2022 in Longmont, Colorado. She was born March 29,1935 in Toledo, Ohio to George Joseph Bache, a die-cast maker, and Lucretia (Betty) Moran, an office manager. Betty became Grand Matron of the Eastern Star in Ohio. The parents of George and Betty required them to find jobs, rather than attend high school. Kaye's parents insisted and paid for undergraduate college educations for Kaye and her older sister, Joan. Both girls took youth classes at the Toledo Art Museum, plus private lessons in piano and tap dancing. Kaye and Joan continued tap dancing through lives of changes. Joan Bache Lamb is a retired attorney, former psychologist, and high school biology teacher. Kaye earned several degrees: Ohio State University, B.A., English and B.S., Education, 1957; University of Colorado M.A. in English and Comparative Literature, 1959. At OSU, she was named to the Mortar Board Honorary for her scholarship and service. She was campus YWCA vice-president, and a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. In 1959 and 1960, she led summer backpacks for Canadian Youth Hostel to Great Britain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Turkey, Yugoslavia, Greece, Italy and Belgium. In Madison, while earning a PhD at the University of Wisconsin in 1964, she worked weekends at Maple Bluff Country Club, continuing an avocation begun in 1957 at Denver's former Apple Tree Shanty on Colfax Avenue. She taught English literature and creative writing at the University of Colorado-Boulder from 1964-69. The summer of 1966, she spent a month in London on scholarship, doing research at the British Museum Library on 18th century novelist Tobias Smollet and artist William Hogarth. From London, she explored the British Isles, then France to coastal Spain. Then, she took trains and traveled north to Denmark and Norway. In Sweden, she participated in a seminar: "Education and Social Issues Today with Reference to the Developing Countries." In 1969, she became a visiting professor, first on Semester-at-Sea's Asia-Africa voyage; then in 1970 at Sir George Williams University in Montreal, Quebec.

Offered an educator's scholarship from Outward Bound, Kaye drove to Colorado for five weeks of a survival school in 1971. She spent the summer of 1971 and 1972 at the Banff School of Fine Art, working in the acrylic medium under muralist Ilda Lubane. She was an associate professor in the 1970's at Metropolitan State College, Denver and worked summers, 1973 and 1974, as manager and editor for the Aspen Institute of Humanistic Studies' seminar on Global Warming. She met her future husband, Professor Howard A. Snyder, on a Colorado Mountain Club winter climb in 1973. At the University of Colorado, he specialized in low-temperature physics with research grants from various firms, such as Ball Aerospace. The couple married in 1976 and moved to Longmont. From 1976 to 1979, she worked for North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, as publications editor, and manager of its convention in Chicago at the Palmer House. She also chaired NCA's Council on Research and Service. She resigned to earn an M.S. in journalism in 1981 at CU. She was a Boulder County correspondent for the Denver Post, 1982 to 1984. Then, she became region editor and reporter for the Daily Times-Call in Longmont, 1984 to 1991. She resigned to devote herself to literary writing and painting. Those years, she taught writing workshops in continuing education at CU and at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities. Throughout her life, she wrote and published articles, reviews, poetry, essays and fiction. She won awards from Inland Daily Press Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, National Federation of Press Women, three founders' awards from the Denver Woman's Press Club, plus multiple awards from the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. In 1998, she was awarded a writing residency at Hedgebrook Farm, on South Whidbey Island, Washington. There she drafted her book of historical fiction, Toledo 1942: We Were There Yesterday.

She enjoyed mountaineering, hiking, skiing and bird-watching and loved animals. She was a life member of the Colorado Mountain Club, editing Trail and Timberline in the 1970's. She was a member of the Denver's Woman's Press Club, Longmont Writers Club, National Federation of State Poetry Societies, and Colorado Press Women. She is survived by her sister Joan Lamb in California; niece Kim Lamb Gregory, a former journalist and current university communications specialist in California; nephew Bret Lamb of Divide,Co, a Colorado educator and and preceded in death by nephew Jim Lamb of Breckenridge, Co, also a Colorado educator. Contributions in Kaye's memory may be made to The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg, Colorado, the Longmont Humane Society, or Colorado Public Radio by using the links provided below. Ahlberg Funeral Chapel and Crematory in Longmont is in charge of the arrangements. Private services will be held.