Jack J Snyder

John "Jack" Snyder was born in Portland on June 13, 1929 to parents Walter and Anna Snyder, an only child. When Jack was 21 years old, he joined the U.S. Air Force, and served his country honorably for four years service. He remained proud of his service throughout his life. He met his wife Beverly (White) at a square dance while stationed at MacDill AFB in Tampa Florida. In 1953, Jack married Beverly and together they raised two children, Donn and Lennia.

Jack lived an active life, full of adventure, never one to sit around and do nothing. Jack was active in many communities, as well as his family life. Jack and Beverly took RV trips together throughout the four corners of the United States, visiting all 49 continental states as well as parts of Canada. In the 50's, Jack and Beverly square danced together with Jack serving as co chair for the 1959 Oregon Centennial Square Dance at Jantzen Beach. As his children grew and developed interests, Jack became involved with them as well, managing hockey teams with the Portland Amateur Hockey Association and serving as an officer with the Portland Ice Skating Club. He sharpened skates for many of the local figure skaters for over 40 years, bringing a machinists approach to high quality competitive figure skating and hockey.

Throughout his life, Jack enjoyed racing cars, beginning in the late 40's helping run sprint cars in the northwest car owner Bob Scovell. In the late 50's and into the 60's he migrated to working on SCCA road race cars. In the early 70's he raced go karts with his son Donn and later became the President of the Sprocket Benders Kart Club and served as Starter/Flagger. In the 80's through the early 2000's he supported Donn's racing activities. In the mid 2000's he became involved with the Northwest Vintage Speedsters and in the last 10 years was the Starter/Flagger for the West Coast Vintage Racers.

Jack and Bev have had a cabin at Diamond Lake since 1978. They spent their summer vacations there and enjoyed snowmobiling in the winter. Jack was President of the Diamond Lake Homeowners Association for 10 years. He and Bev also served as Good Will Ambassadors for the National Forest Homeowners Association. They visited many cabin tracts throughout Oregon and neighboring states.

Jack worked as an instructor at Portland Community College for 20 years, teaching auto mechanics. He had been a teacher his entire life. Being a mechanical genius and a natural teacher, Jack loved the challenge of a problem waiting to be diagnosed and fixed, and enjoyed showing others how to do the same. Before becoming a teacher, he owned his own shop, Jack Snyder Automotive, from the late 50's to the mid 60's and then worked at UPS as a mechanic. Ever the mechanic and teacher, even while at the care facility in October, Jack continued to diagnose and help people with how to best fix their cars.

When Jack was diagnosed with cancer, he treated it with the same passion and involvement he had in the rest of his life. He was willing to try any treatment or care plan, and had several extra quality years as a result of the specialized care he was willing to go through. In charge until the end, Jack passed away peacefully with his family by his side on October 18, 2014. Jack is survived by his wife Beverly, son Donn (Ladorna) Snyder, daughter Lennia (Gary) Machen), and grandchildren Lindsay Snyder (Zach) and John Carl Straub.