MARIE SNIDER

Marie Snider, 89, passed away at home in North Newton, Kan. on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2016.
A writer throughout her life, Marie inspired and empowered thousands of readers with her syndicated column, “This Side of 60,” for the past 26 years.
She was born to Nicholas and Dorothy (Moser) Gingerich on Aug. 9, 1927, in New Bremen, N.Y. Brother, Jim, was born five years later.
At the age of four, Marie entered first grade in a one-room schoolhouse next door to the family farm on Route 12 in Lewis County.
After graduating from the Lowville Free Academy at the age of 14, Marie attended Eastern Mennonite and Goshen colleges. She taught for several years at a one-room school in Lowville and at Rockway Mennonite School in Kitchener, Ont.
Returning to Goshen Seminary to earn a Master’s degree in religious education, she met Howard Snider from Guernsey, Sask. They were married at New Bremen Mennonite Church in Lowville, N.Y. on Nov. 27, 1954.
Howard passed away on Aug. 2, 2015.
In 1957, the Sniders moved to Edmonton, Alta. Vada was born in 1958 and Conrad in 1962. During the Edmonton years, Marie focused all of her energy on family, building a strong social world, and organizing countless parties and picnics.
In the mid-1960s, Howard accepted a faculty position at Bethel College and the family moved to North Newton.
Marie began working at Prairie View Mental Health Center in 1967. Throughout the years, her role expanded and, when she retired in 1991, she was director of communications and had a staff of five in her department.
The 1970s and ’80s were a period of great professional growth. In 1976, Marie edited the booklet, “Media and Terrorism: The Psychological Impact,” which was later reprinted in its entirety in the report of the U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on Media and Terrorism.
She won numerous national awards for health-care communications, including the prestigious MacEachern Award from the Association of Hospital Public Relations.
In her 50s, Marie returned to school again, this time earning a Master’s degree in communications from Kansas State University. Her master’s thesis, entitled “Sex Roles in the Comic Strips–a Historical Perspective, 1896-1979,” led to dozens of speaking engagements.
And in 1980, she was invited to appear as “the real Marie Snider” on the television show “To Tell the Truth.”
After retiring from Prairie View, Marie began writing “This Side of 60.” The column was syndicated and at one point appeared in more than 70 newspapers across the U.S. and Canada, including the Fort Frances Times.
Intellectually active throughout her life, she wrote the final column only 10 weeks before her passing.
Throughout her life, Marie thrived on friendship. She treasured long-term friends and continually was making new friends, right to the end.
She loved playing games (Bridge, mah jongg, Rook, and dominos), working on the computer late at night, square dancing, spending time in the Colorado mountains with family, attending theatre productions and watching old movies, encouraging and following her children’s activities, exercising in various ways that adapted as her abilities changed, and having endless coffees and conversations in the living room.
Marie is survived by her daughter, Vada; son, Conrad (Diane Sorensen); and four-legged “George” of North Newton, Kan.; brother, Jim (Roberta) Gingerich of Moundridge, Kan.; nieces, Lynette (James) Allen of Moundridge, Kan. and Kara (Dean) Revel of Miltonvale, Kan.; nephew, Darwin (Jodi) Gingerich of Moundridge, Kan.; great-nieces and nephews; Boshart, Widrick, Moser, and Gingerich cousins in the eastern U.S.; and sister-in-law, Agnes Snider, and Weber and Snider nieces and nephews, in Canada.
A celebration of life service will be held Thursday, Sept. 15, 2016 at 4 p.m. at Bethel College Mennonite Church, 2600 College Ave., North Newton.
In memoriam donations may be made to Bethel College Mennonite Church, to the Howard Snider Scholarship Fund at Bethel College, or to Harry Hynes Memorial Hospice c/o Petersen Funeral Home, 215 N. Main St., Newton, KS, 67114.