Harold ‘Leon’ Snyder

Harold “Leon” Sny­der of Prospect passed away from this life on Mon­day (July 2, 2012).

He suf­fered from poor health for a num­ber of years. He was born the only child to Vin­cel L. and Bertha L. (Nor­ton) Sny­der on April 8, 1945, in Sedalia Mo. Both pre­ceded him in death.

Leon spent most of his for­ma­tive years in rural Delaware County near Ash­ley. He grew up on the fam­ily farm, often work­ing for neigh­bors. He was in both 4-H and FFA which helped him mold his future occu­pa­tional goals. He grad­u­ated as the last class of Elm Val­ley High School (Buck­eye Val­ley Local Schools). His class motto was the alpha and omega (the first and the last). His father sold the farm when he grad­u­ated from high school. The fam­ily then moved to Mar­ion. Leon worked his way through school, OSU. His goal was to become a voca­tional agri­cul­ture teacher. He worked for his father, ren­o­vat­ing houses, Kroger, Howison-Howard and Huber-Warco before fin­ish­ing his degree of Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence from the Ohio State Uni­ver­sity in 1969. His first teach­ing job was at Tippeca­noe High School in Tipp City. His sec­ond school was at Greenville High School in Greenville. Leon received his Mas­ter of Sci­ence from the Ohio State Uni­ver­sity in 1974. He taught at Big Wal­nut for 10 years. Leon’s Big Wal­nut FFA chap­ter was rec­og­nized on local, dis­trict, state and national lev­els in many areas of the pro­gram. In 1978, he received the Hon­orary State Farmer and Amer­i­can Farmer awards. In 1982, he moved to the Elgin Local School Dis­trict. In 1989, he received the Ohio Voca­tional Agri­cul­ture Teacher of the year award. Leon was forced to go on dis­abil­ity due to his declin­ing health. He worked part time for a num­ber of years as a con­sul­tant for the Bureau of Voca­tional Reha­bil­i­ta­tion and Work­ers Com­pen­sa­tion of Ohio. He enjoyed trav­el­ing and see­ing the USA. He vis­ited all 50 states and all 88 of Ohio’s coun­ties. He enjoyed col­lect­ing record albums, lis­ten­ing to music, gar­den­ing, read­ing about his­tory and wood work­ing. Leon was very proud of his chil­dren and grand­chil­dren. In addi­tion, he took great pride in the lives he touched as a teacher and men­tor as well as the achieve­ments of those stu­dents’ lives he touched.

He is sur­vived by his wife, Rustye Kaye (Rober­son); chil­dren, Bret R. Sny­der (Mia) of Mar­ion, Misti B. Gilmore (Jet) of Dal­las, Kris L. Sny­der (Beth) of Cha­grin Falls and K. Sean Sny­der (Kelli) of Delaware; his grand­chil­dren, Bran­don S. Sny­der of Pitts­burg, Spencer L. Sny­der of Cleve­land, Kasee A. Sny­der and Kyler S. Sny­der of Delaware, Ella B. Sny­der and Tess K. Sny­der of Cha­grin Falls and Cheyenne J. Gilmore of Dal­las; and one great-granddaughter, Keirra Sny­der of Marion.

A cel­e­bra­tion of his life is planned for 5 to 8 p.m., Sat­ur­day, July 7, at All Occa­sions Cater­ing, 6989 Waldo-Delaware Road, Waldo.

Mes­sages of con­do­lence may be shared with the fam­ily at NewcomerColumbus.com and for his love of agri­cul­ture in lieu of flow­ers please con­tribute to the Future Farm­ers of Amer­ica at ffa.org.

Posted by Staff Reports Obits on Jul 4 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.