Joseph Roy Snyder

1931 - 2017

CHESTERTOWN - J. Roy Snyder passed away Sept. 6, 2017.
He was born of Eleanor Van Alstyne Snyder and Joseph Dudley Snyder, March 15, 1931 at Coppick Lane in Burlington County, N.J. In his youth, when not working on the farm growing tomatoes, sweet corn, peaches and turkeys, he was active in the YMCA and Future Farmers of America. He graduated from Burlington County High School in 1949.
He met and married his wife, Barbara Christine Stewart in Burlington County in 1954, and they lived on the farm there until moving in 1956 to Deer Track Farm on Double Creek Road, Queen Anne's County, near Chestertown. A beach house built by his father, Roy, and brothers on Long Beach Island, N.J., was a shared and treasured family vacation spot.
He was an early practitioner of irrigation systems and plasticulture in the area, shipping tractor-trailer loads of sweet corn to urban markets, creating machinery and other innovations he and brother John implemented. They were known regionally for the excellent quality of sweet corn, cantaloupes and tomatoes. Sweet corn was picked at night to provide cool dew covered corn to local markets for same day sale, a business innovation that created a market demand. He provided employment for many local high school students during the summers on the farm. He was an avid hunter and fisherman, instilling in his children and grandchildren a love of the outdoors, a conservation ethic, fairness and sportsmanship.
He was a devoted family man, gentle, easy going, a great smile and a great sense of humor that stayed with him till the end.
Roy was active in the Chestertown Lions Club for many years. Prior to retiring from farming, he obtained a Realtor's license. He built a house on Brices Mill Road in Kent County, and lived there for 26 years. Roy and Barbara have traveled throughout the U.S., Puerto Rico and Mexico with friends, and enjoyed spending the early months of the year in Florida.
He is predeceased by his brother, Robert; survived by brothers John M. and Thomas E. Snyder; sister Marion Powers; his wife, Barbara; their children, James Roy Snyder of Millington, Richard Allan Snyder of Craddockville, Va., William Joseph Snyder of Chestertown and Anne Barbara Snyder O'Connor and husband Brian of Rock Hall; grandchildren Christy, Mandy, and Daniel (James), Corinne and Meredith (Richard) and Brennan (Anne); and great-grandchildren Colton and Casey (Christy) and Abby and Price (Mandy).
A memorial service will be held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 7579 Sandy Bottom Road, Chestertown, at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 16. Internment will be family only.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Compass Regional Hospice, 160 Coursevall Dr., Centreville, MD 21617 or Living at Home Health Services LLC, 818 High St. Suite 5, Chestertown, MD 21620.
Arrangements by Fellows, Helfenbein & Newnam Funeral Home, Chestertown. Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.fhnfuneralhome.com.



This obituary was originally published in the Kent County News.