Frost and Margaret Snyder were lifelong residents of Pierce County. They were both born in Tacoma in the 1890’s and grew up in the north end of Tacoma across the alley from each other. The two married in 1921. They moved to Lakewood in 1947, where they had summered on American Lake for years. They had two daughters, Catharine Kendall Brockert and Margaret Cunningham and 16 grandchildren.
Frost Snyder was a graduate of Yale’s Sheffield College in 1913 with an engineering degree. He had a long career in the door, lumber and plywood business, first with Clear Fir Lumber Company and then with Vancouver Plywood Company. Margaret Snyder was a graduate of Emerson Oratory in Boston. In addition to her theatrical pursuits, she had considerable business acumen and owned several downtown Tacoma properties.
Together, Frost and Margaret shared a love for the outdoors. Frost was an avid fly fisherman, mountaineer and hiker and together they spent many afternoons riding their horses on the prairies around what is now Joint Base Lewis McChord. They enjoyed hiking and camping with pack horses in and around Mt. Rainier National Park and the Olympics.
The Snyder’s grew in their faith through close connections with their parish communities and with many Jesuits at Bellarmine and Seattle University, where Frost served on their boards for many years. Margaret, too, was very involved in the community, volunteering for the Public Health Service, Catholic Charities and Catholic Women’s Club. She was active in literary and gardening clubs and particularly in her parishes, St. Leo Parish in Tacoma and St. Frances Cabrini Parish in Lakewood. Through these involvements the Snyders forged genuine, lifelong friendships with many priests and became steadfast patrons of the Catholic Church. They believed in the value of a Catholic education as a means to foster both spiritual and intellectual growth and established scholarship endowments at many Washington high schools, colleges and universities.
Frost and Margaret Snyder were visionaries, focused on their faith and a desire to support the Catholic Church in perpetuity. Before their deaths in 1968 and 1971, they dedicated a considerable portion of their resources to fund the Frost and Margaret Snyder Foundation, reflecting their love of the Catholic Church. The sole purpose of the foundation is to support and advance the Roman Catholic Church.
