William Davis Snider

A memorial service will be held at 11 am on Monday, January 30 at First Presbyterian Church, Greensboro, NC. The family will receive friends after the service in the Virginia Gilmer Room.

A man of principle and conviction, Snider covered North Carolina politics and government with insight and wisdom for more than three decades. He was a leader in the fight for civil rights in Greensboro and was active in his community and his church. His love of the written word began as a young boy when he started a neighborhood newspaper and continued through his work as a journalist, an editor and an author. He loved the natural world and anything related to the people, the politics and the history of the state of North Carolina. Kind and gregarious, he had a twinkling sense of humor and was dearly loved by all his family.

Mr. Snider was a native of Salisbury, NC, born there on June 7, 1920, son of William Marvin and Mildred Telfair (Davis) Snider. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1941 with an AB in Journalism. During World War II he served with the U.S. Army Signal Corps in India-Burma (1942-46), discharged as a lieutenant.

Mr. Snider’s journalistic career began as a reporter for The Salisbury Evening Post after which he became private secretary to Gov. R. Gregg Cherry and later administrative assistant to Gov. W. Kerr Scott. He returned to journalism as associate editor of the old Greensboro Daily News and the Greensboro Record in 1965 and serving in that capacity and later as editorial page editor of both papers, until his retirement in 1982.

Then, continuing to write his Sunday column for the News & Record, he turned to the writing of two books, both published by the University of N.C. Press: Helms & Hunt, The North Carolina Senate Race, 1984; and Light on the Hill, a History of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1992.

Mr. Snider was married in 1948 to Florence A. Lide of Florence, S.C., and they are parents of four daughters: Jane Telfair Snider Finalborgo of Southampton, N.Y.; Mary Alice Cordon Snider Lodico of Waynesville, N.C.; Florence Lide Snider Kaplan of Greensboro; and Mildred Telfair Davis Snider Rixey of Tappahannock, Va. His daughters, along with their 12 children and his six great-grandchildren were the delight of his life. These grandchildren are: Evan James Folds, William Victor Finalborgo, Mary Cordon Folds McGee, Mary Catena Finalborgo, Michael Edward Lodico, Jr., Richard Cassius Lee Moncure, Jr., Anna Jane Lodico Nishimura, Virginia Davis Moncure Horstman, Margaret Lide Moncure, Maxwell Lide Kaplan, Caroline Stewart Moncure, and William Marcus Kaplan.

In 1974 Mr. Snider served as president of the National Conference of Editorial Writers. He was also a member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, a correspondent for Newsweek magazine and served on the Pulitzer Prize Jury.

In 1979 Mr. Snider received the Brotherhood Award of the National Conference of Christians and Jews; in 1979 the Edward R. Murrow Award of the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce and in 1955 the Greensboro Jaycees Young-Man-of-the-Year Award. He was also affiliated with a number of civic and service organizations including the board of trustees of the UNC Center for Public Television at Chapel Hill and the presidency of the North Carolina Press Association (1974-75); the Children’s Home Society of N.C. (1963-65); and the North Carolina Awards Commission (1963-74).

Mr. Snider was chairman of the Greensboro Library Board of Trustees during the construction of the new library on North Greene Street (1958-66); served on the Chancellor’s Selection Committee, UNC-CH (1956-57); the North Carolina Bar Association Committee for Improving the Administration of Justice (1957-59); and the North Carolina State Constitutional Commission (1957-59).

Mr. Snider won the Distinguished Alumni Award at Chapel Hill in 1977; served as a lecturer in journalism at UNC-G (1963-64), on the Board of Visitors at UNC-Chapel Hill (1979-85), the Board of Visitors, Guilford College (1978-84), and the board of directors of the UNC-Chapel Hill General Alumni Association (1979-85). He was a member of the Fleece and Sigma Nu Fraternity at Chapel Hill; a deacon and elder of Greensboro’s First Presbyterian Church; a member of the UNC-G Excellence Foundation, the Weatherspoon Art Museum Foundation and Greensboro Kiwanis Club.

An avid tennis player until a few years before his death, Mr. Snider especially enjoyed games with his daughters. The Sniders annually held family gatherings on the North Carolina coast for more than three decades, and these were often the subject of his newspaper columns.

In addition to his beloved wife, daughters and grandchildren, he is survived by his sons-in-law Victor J. Finalborgo of Southampton, N.Y.; Michael E. Lodico of Waynesville, N.C.; Dr. David Kaplan of Greensboro; and Frank Rixey of Tappahannock, Va. His only sister, Mrs. Mary Stuart McLendon, died in 1993.

The family will receive friends following the service in the church’s Virginia Gilmer Room and suggests that memorial gifts be made to the Ministers’ Discretion Fund, First Presbyterian Church, 617 N. Elm Street, Greensboro, N.C. 27401; Greensboro Urban Ministries, 305 W. Lee St., Greensboro, NC 27406; or Well-Spring Retirement Community, 4100 Well-Spring Drive, Greensboro, N.C. 27410.

Hanes-Lineberry North Elm Street Funeral Home is assisting the family.