Jack Jacob Snyder

Jack (known within the family as Jake) was born in Venice, CA. He quit high school at the end of 8th grade to make his way in the world. At age 17 he worked in a Civilian Conservation Corps camp for a few months before enlisting in the Navy. Jack loved the Navy and worked his way up from Seaman to Chief Gunners Mate.

During World War II, he served on the USS Missouri, USS Mississippi, and the USS Colorado, among other lesser known ships. In 1946, he met the love of his life, Marion Virden Schusterick, at a dance in Santa Monica, and they were married on February 22, 1946, in Yuma, AZ. A year later they had their only child, Stephen Leslie Snyder, and they moved to Washington DC so that Jack could attend Gunnery School at the Navy Yard.

Jack’s next post was at the Naval Base in Norfolk, VA. In 1955, the family was assigned to Bremerhaven, Germany, as part of the North Sea Watch and the Rhine River Patrol. They returned to Northern Virginia in 1958.

After 21 years in the Navy, Jack passed the test to be an officer, but it would have meant going back to sea for six months, and he didn’t want to be away from his wife and son any more. So, he retired at 38 and took the Civil Service exam, obtaining a civilian job at the Pentagon, where he worked until he retired for the second time (a disability due to a broken ankle) at the ripe old age of 49. That means he collected dual pensions for 47 years. The Navy was good to him.

In the mid-1960s, Jack also owned a Sinclair gas station, where his son, Stephen, sometimes helped out. He also bought, fixed, and sold boats and cars. They were a boating family, and they had many adventures on the Chesapeake Bay and the Severn River in Maryland.

In 1980, realizing that his son and daughter-in-law were spending every summer in Maine with the grandchildren – Stephen Jr. (Joey) and Kathleen – Jack and Marion bought a waterfront house on Union River Bay in Ellsworth, ME, where they spent summers for 26 years, enjoying the cool weather, the seals cavorting on the rocks in front of their house, and hunting for treasures at flea markets and auctions. Jack also carved many wooden decoys and built rustic furniture.

In 1994, Jack and Marion followed their son’s family to Jensen Beach, FL. For the last 10 years or so he enjoyed selling silver jewelry on Thursday nights at the local “Jammin’ Jensen” street fair with his son. Jack and Steve were always very close, but after Jack lost his wife in 2014 (after of 68 years of marriage), they were inseparable buddies.

Breakfast was Jack’s favorite meal, and he enjoyed eating it at Aunt D’s Kitchen almost every day for the last few years, even when Covid-19 made it carry-out.

Jack is survived by his son Stephen and his wife, Lynne Peterson; granddaughter Kathleen Snyder of Fort Mill, SC; and great-grandson Ethan Snyder, a junior at Florida Gulf Coast University. Jack will be cremated by Aycock Funeral Home in Jensen Beach, FL. A graveside service will be held next summer in Sunnyside Cemetery in Eastbrook, ME, where he and his wife, Marion, will be interred alongside their grandson Joey, who died in 2001. In lieu of flowers please hug your own loved ones.