Colonel Richard Snyder, U. S. Army(Ret.)

Colonel Richard Snyder, U. S. Army (Ret), 91, died peacefully on Wednesday the 10th of June 2015 after a short illness. His wife and son were at his side. Colonel Snyder was born July 28, 1923, in Sioux Falls, SD, the son of Henry and Gladys Snyder. In 1932, the family moved to Topeka, KS and Richard graduated from Topeka HS in 1941. He attended 2-1/2 years at University of Kansas before being drafted into the Army in 1943. The bridge company unit he was assigned to was sent to Europe in 1944 and landed at Utah Beach in August. Assigned to General Patton's 3rd Army, his platoon built 48 Bailey bridges between August 1944 and May 1945. When the war ended, his unit had participated in four of the five major western European campaigns. Discharged in 1946, he completed college and law school at Washburn University in Topeka, and was admitted to practice law in Kansas in 1949. He then applied for, and received, a direct commission into the Army's Judge Advocate Generals Corps. He was with the 7th Infantry Division in Korea during that conflict, and was a military judge in Vietnam in 1967-1968, rising to the rank of Colonel. Subsequently he was assigned as military judge for California and Hawaii; military judge for New England; and Chief Judge for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. His final assignment before retirement in 1976 was Chief Judge for Hawaii, Japan, Okinawa, and Southeast Asia. Upon retirement, Colonel Snyder was appointed deputy general counsel for the State Corporation Commission of Kansas, and later became acting general counsel of that Commission. In 1979, he was offered a position with the Georgia Court of Appeals and moved to Atlanta, where he resided until his death. After retirement from the Court of Appeals, he devoted himself to his passion for golf at the Dunwoody Country Club and to the active social life he and his wife Nobuko enjoyed. Colonel Snyder was preceded in death by his parents; and by his siblings Henry Snyder, Pauline Dockendorf, and Mary Schnacke. He is survived by his wife Nobuko Snyder, of Atlanta; and by his five children: Shoshana Halle, Oakland CA; Amy Betit, Pungoteague VA; Stephen Snyder, Salem NY; Martha Snyder, Vesuvius VA; and Sarah McCarter, Santa Barbara CA; niece Cyd Schnacke, Lawrence KS; as well as by his seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. He will be interred at a later date at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. Friends are cordially invited to a visitation and reception with the family Sunday, June 14th, from four until six o’clock in the evening, at the H. M. Patterson & Son Arlington Chapel, 173 Allen Rd NE, Atlanta GA 30328.