On March 2, 1925, Charles H. and Myrtle Snyder welcomed their fifth child into their family and they called him by the name of John. Even though the timing was so bad with the coming of the Great Depression just right around the corner, John grew up to lead a very rich and full life, which ended on this earth on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023, just about two weeks before his 98th birthday.
John spent part of his early years in his dad’s blacksmith shop, where he picked up a love of mechanics.
And he had much time with his mother as they worked in their large garden and orchard.
He grew up to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corp in 1943 during World War II, where he served mostly building roads with an International TD18 tractor on the forward end of troop incursions on the islands in the South Pacific.
Returning home at the end of the war, he used a horse to plow and cultivate gardens and then purchased a war surplus Studebaker 6X6, which he converted to a cattle truck, thus entering into trucking, one of the many careers of his life. He was an inventor with the last of his projects being an electric powered tricycle.
He married Betty Gilbert and the two of them ventured through his many occupations and into so many places, especially Alaska. Betty died in 1976.
John purchased some farmland east of Kendrick and then married Mierley Day. Mierley died in 2017.
Bliss, Fred, Joe, Fern, Chuck and Don were his brothers and sisters. John is survived by his brother, Chuck, and Don’s wife, Helen Snyder; stepchildren Darliss Bardwell (Larry) and Kim Uhlorn; son-in-law Bob Bailey (Lanie, deceased); and many grandchildren and nieces and nephews.