- Date Of Birth: March 17, 1920
- Date Of Death: May 9, 2017
- State: Florida
J.Marcel Snyder, 97, formerly of Oviedo, FL, Bethesda and Hagerstown, MD, expired quietly on Tuesday, May 9, 2017, at Huntington Place nursing facility in Rockledge, FL. He was born on March 17, 1920, in Hagerstown, MD, to the late Albert and Pauline Snyder. Survivors include his wife of 68 years, Dollie, and their sons, James Jr., his wife Gloria, and their daughter, Kimberly and her four children, Keeley, Malia, Carter, and Marley; son Daniel; and two sisters, Myra Ruth Clipp, Williamsport, MD, and Mildred Snyder, Frederick, MD. Both sons live in Alexandria, VA.
In 1940, he was graduated from Strayer College in Washington, D.C., where he obtained a Bachelor of Commercial Science degree. The morning after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor he stood in line outside the Army Recruiting Office for more than two hours waiting to enlist in the Army Air Force. During WW II, he served in both the Asiatic/Pacific and European Theaters. After flight training, he was assigned to the 781st Bomb Squadron (a B24 unit) stationed in Italy. At that time, he was a Navigator/Radar Bombardier in which capacity he completed approximately 70 combat missions against targets in Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Northern Italy, and Yugoslavia. He retired from the Air Force Reserve as a Lieutenant Colonel (LTC).
Following the war, he graduated from the University of Maryland with a BS degree and worked in public accounting at which time he passed the CPA exam.
On March 27, 2007, at the request of the Grand Lodge of Oregon, Harbor City Lodge No. 318 F. & A. M.
One example of his many overseas experiences involved the 1972 May Day Parade in Moscow, USSR. The parade route for one of the groups of marchers came very close to the Snyder residence, so they decided to join it. At one point, their group stopped to permit another group to enter the parade route ahead of them. A member of their group took out a violin and began to play Russian dance music. Immediately the marchers became dancers, and they entertained the crowd watching the parade for about 20 minutes. The continuation of the parade went fine until they reached the bridge over the Moscow River by the Kremlin. There Soviet Police invited the Snyders to depart the parade as only Soviet Citizens could march through Red Square that day. Not wanting to create an international incident, the Snyders accepted the invitation graciously. It was fun.
