Mark Jay Schneider

Mark Jay Schneider

Bradford, VT - Mark Jay Schneider, age 70, died October 9, 2025 in Bradford, VT. I was born in Bridgeport, CT Nov. 19, 1954, to Leon L. and Lillian L. (Stein) Schneider. I grew up in Shelton, CT, SHS class of 1972 and received a BA in both biology and psychology at the University of Bridgeport (CT). After a 2-year stint at UConn Medical School and 1 year in the graduate French program at UConn, Storrs (when I met my future wife, Katherine Bolak) I started graduate school at SUNY Stony Brook. I received my Ph.D. from the Department of Pharmacological Sciences in 1986.

I came to Dartmouth Medical School that summer as a post-doctoral fellow in Biochemistry and remained as research faculty until retirement in 2018. At DMS, I soon became interested in the work of Dr. Val Galton in Physiology on the action of thyroid hormone in vertebrate development, joining her lab in 1988. I collaborated with her for the next 18 years, obtaining my own NIH grant along the way. Until this day, Val has been a dear friend and a mentor, not only in science, but in appreciation of classical music, good books and PBS Masterpiece.

All the while, I would be nowhere without the efforts of my paternal grandfather, Rubin, and his second wife, Yetta, as surrogate parents, for instilling in me a Jewish identity, starting with my bar mitzvah, and who made Seaside Park in Bridgeport a place to visit for a lifetime. My interest in Jewish studies really began in 1976 thanks to Rabbi Michael Laxmeter, then in Derby, CT. Since then, I studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York and in 1995 enrolled in the new distance learning program at Spertus Institute of Judaica in Chicago, where I received an MS in Jewish Studies. This experience provided for life-long learning of Hebrew and Jewish texts.

I am survived by the love of my life and caretaker to the bitter end, Kathy, and my virtual siblings. I also leave my brother, Ronald, and his two sons, Darryl (Aileen) and Jamie (Ashley and son Logan) and my sister, Dawn (Michael), all of CT. In recent years, I have become especially close with paternal cousin, Stacy Kelner, and my dear maternal cousin ("prima"), Wendy Garrick.

I say goodbye to my longest dearest friend of 53 years, Judy Peterson Harvey of Shelton. Close to hand in VT, are my reconnected Shelton classmate and very close friend, Joy Kosta, and dear colleague and friend, Walli Croteau, the most righteous person I know.

My advice to people with a history of decades-long ulcerative colitis, symptomatic or not, is to insist on ANNUAL colonoscopies and to find a cancer center which immediately tests for carcinogenic gene mutations, leading to an informed plan of colon cancer treatment.

Please make much needed donations to your local Public Radio and/or Public TV stations in this time of war on the truth, the press, freedom and democracy.

A memorial service will be held at the Roth Center for Jewish Life, 5 Occom Ridge, Hanover, NH on Sunday Oct. 26th at 3:00pm. Rand-Wilson Funeral Home in Hanover is in charge of arrangements.