Daniel B. Snow

Daniel Bulla “Buzzy” Snow, 88, of Hampton, Virginia, passed away peacefully on March 26, 2025. Dan was born on January 30, 1937, in Norfolk County, Virginia, to Arthur William Snow and Mary Bulla, who lived on their farm in Hickory, Virginia. He was preceded in death by his wife Nancy Wallace Snow, his parents, his sister Mary Allen Owen (Harding). He is survived by his brother Samuel G. (Ann), daughters Rebecca Cleghorn, Carole Snow, and Susan Finelli (George), grandchildren Canaan Herkamp (Paul), Kevin Finelli (Ruthie), and Brian Finelli (Jennifer), and his great grandchildren, Wyatt, August, Melody Herkamp, and a great grandson arriving in September 2025.

Dan was a man of deep faith and love for his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He often spent time alone with the Lord in prayer and reading scripture. He was a church elder and conducted mission trips to other countries, with a particular love for the people of Spain. Dan conducted a radio broadcast on Saturday mornings called “Rivers of Grace,” which was a Christian program explaining basic scriptural truths. He summed up his faith in this entry in one of his many prayer journals, “I want more and more of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, the son of our Heavenly Father.”

Dan played the Baritone Horn while attending Great Bridge High School and was selected as a member of the Virginia All-State Band. He was an accomplished piano player and loved to play his favorite hymns. Being one of the taller kids in his class, he played on the basketball team, but he loved playing on the baseball team the most (and loved telling stories of his great hits and catches). Dan attended VPI, where he pursued a degree in Mechanical Engineering, focusing on rocket propulsion and steam and gas turbines. During his time at Virginia Tech, he was a part of the Cooperative Engineering Program and did assignments at the Norfolk Naval Air Station, conducting engineering work on jet and reciprocating aircraft engines.

After graduating in 1959, he entered into the aerospace industry with Pratt & Whitney in Florida, where he developed and tested liquid nitrogen oxygen rocket engines. He later took a position at NASA Langley in Hampton, VA on 1961. Throughout his 34-year career at NASA, he contributed to many innovative technologies that impacted the US space program and the aerospace industry. Dan’s first assignment was in the Spacecraft Branch as part of NASA’s Mars Mission Studies, where his work ranged from developing and testing Saturn V rocket models to designing systems on micro-meteoroid satellites. He later participated in the historic Voyager and Viking Mars mission programs and authored reports over a wide spectrum of mission subjects. Later, Dan researched and published his work on Hydrogen Propulsion for commercial transport aircraft, an idea way ahead of it’s time in the early 1970’s. In 1974 he received a Special Achievement Award for “outstanding effort in directing the system studies for liquid and methane fueled transport aircraft.”

From 1976-1977, Dan was detailed to NASA Headquarters, where he had Agency-level oversight of Construction of Facilities projects, specifically for the Refuse Fired Steam Generating Facility and the National Transonic Facilities projects at Langley. Dan later became part of the Langley team that converted an old wind tunnel nearing the end of its useful life into the National Transonic Facility (NTF), a one-of-a-kind critical research facility that provided the US with capabilities unique in the world. He eventually assumed the position of lead Test Engineer in the NTF. As the NTF used Liquid Nitrogen (LN2) to provide its test medium, Dan investigated other innovative uses for LN2. He initiated partnerships and published papers on the use of LN2 to contain and clean up oil spills from oil rigs and tankers.

Dan was an amazing gardener, producing an abundance of crops in his backyard. Besides growing corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and grapes, he grew the tallest sunflowers you have ever seen.

The family wishes to send a special thank you to Commonwealth Senior Living at Hampton and Trinity Hospice care team, they appreciate your love and care.

As the story goes, Dan saved his little brother’s life by pulling him out of a lake before he could drown. According to his brother Sam, “He was the best brother anyone could ever have.” Dan never believed in saying goodbye, at least not in english, but he found many other ways to say it…adios, arrivederci, au-revoir, sayonara. See you later alligator!

A Celebration of Life will take place on Monday March 31, 2025 at 12 PM at Parklawn Wood Funeral Home, located at 2551 N. Armistead Ave, Hampton VA, 23666. The family will have a private interment after the conclusion of the chapel service.