
DATE: Sunday, April 13, 1997                TAG: 9704120147

SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON   PAGE: 06   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JO-ANN CLEGG, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  127 lines

A MAN OF COMMITMENT EDWARD SNYDER, FIRST CITIZEN OF VIRGINIA BEACH, HAS A LONG LIST OF BUSINESS AND COMMUNITY ACCOMPLISHMENTS THAT RIVAL THOSE OF HIS PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS.

Since 1894 when Louis Snyder opened the doors of his small store near the corner of Norfolk's Church Street and Brambleton Avenue, the name Snyder has stood for two things in Hampton Roads: retailing and community commitment.

Louis' assets back then consisted of $5,000 worth of stock, a supportive wife named Kate, two loyal employees and unlimited faith in the American dream he had left Europe to seek.

Over the years his business prospered and his family grew. By the time he died in 1937 his store occupied nearly a full block in the heart of downtown Norfolk and had well over 100 employees. His children carried on the business, established a charitable foundation in their father's name, raised families of their own and passed on to the next generation the lessons they had learned from their hard-working parents.

Next Sunday evening, Louis Snyder's grandson, Edward Brown Snyder, 69, will be honored as the First Citizen of Virginia Beach, selected by the Virginia Beach Jaycees for doing what Snyders have always done extremely well: selling what the buying public wants to buy and serving the greater Hampton Roads community.

``I didn't know there was any other way of doing things,'' said Ed Snyder, president of Checkered Flag Motor Co. Business and charity were both topics of conversation and the way of life in the Norfolk home of Ed Snyder's parents, Ben Paul and Bertha.

While other Depression-era children whiled away their summers at nearby beaches and far-away camps, Ed Snyder stayed home and set up a lemonade stand on a nearby corner. Making money, he decided way back then, was fun.

And while other Norfolk ladies entertained their bridge clubs on their screened porches, his mother regularly invited groups of crippled children and those who cared for them to drop by and enjoy her carefully tended garden.

Ed Snyder grew up knowing for certain that there were rewards, tangible and intangible, in retailing and in serving the community.

After studying merchandising at the University of Virginia and sales promotion and advertising at New York University, he served a tour of duty in the Air Force, then came home to join the family business. In 1964 he decided to strike out on his own.

``I'd bought an MG,'' he explained, ``and then I couldn't find a dealership in the area to service it so I decided to open one.'' It was a gutsy move at a time when the American vehicle of choice was a chrome-covered, heavily finned, Detroit-spawned behemoth.

With the help of his British-born wife, Jean, Snyder opened an MG/Austin/Jaguar dealership on Virginia Beach Boulevard near Military Highway. ``My wife and my car were both imports,'' he joked.

Just as his grandfather's store grew and prospered, so did Ed Snyder's dealership. Today Checkered Flag has 14 car and truck franchises, seven locations, two body shops, a car rental company and an in-house advertising agency.

And it is still a family firm. Two of Jean and Ed Snyder's five children - son Steve and daughter Robin (the wife of public relations specialist, Sean Brickell) - are actively involved in the running of Checkered Flag.

Three other children scattered from New York to Hong Kong and seven grandchildren round out the immediate Ed Snyder family.

If Snyder's business achievements are impressive, his community achievements rival those of his parents, who between them served on boards and wrote generous checks for community undertakings that crossed every racial, religious, ethnic, military and civilian line in Hampton Roads. His father started the Downtown Norfolk Kiwanis Club, was a charter member of the local chapter of the Navy League and served on the board of Norfolk Community Hospital, the Norfolk YMCA and Ohef Sholom Temple.

His mother, best known for her work with what became the Bertha Snyder Children's Camp Fund, served on the boards of the Flynn Christian Fellowship Home for Alcoholics and the St. Helena Recreation Center as well as the National Board of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith.

Carrying on the tradition, Ed Snyder has dug deep into his own pocket over the years to meet the needs of organizations as diverse as Virginia Wesleyan College, the Virginia Opera, DePaul Hospital and Virginia Beach's 24th Street Park.

He is a great believer in public-private partnerships. One of his favorites is the Virginia Marine Science Museum where he serves as first vice president of the board of trustees.

``The thing I like best is in the wintertime when I go out there and see the school buses rolling up. The kids get off, they go in and have a good time and all the time they're being educated,'' he said.

In addition to his community commitment in Hampton Roads, which includes being King Neptune in 1992 for the city's Neptune Festival, he lends his support to charities in New Mexico where he and his wife have a second home. ``There are so many needs out there, especially with the Indians,'' he said. ``They really got a raw deal. (The government) took their land and didn't give them much of anything in return.''

Much of what Snyder does in both communities, he does quietly. Given his choice, he'd prefer to do it anonymously but that is not always possible. ``I enjoy doing these things but I have no desire for recognition,'' he explained.

He gives Jean Snyder a lot of credit for what he has accomplished. ``If it wasn't for her support, I'd never be able to do it,'' he said, then thought for a moment and smiled. ``I'm living good,'' he said, ``very, very good.''

In 1969, when the L. Snyder Department Store closed its doors for the last time, The Virginian-Pilot paid a rare editorial tribute both to the business and the family.

``Businesses acquire personalities,'' it read in part. ``L. Snyder's has been that of a benevolent citizen and its owners have been in the forefront of community-betterment programs. The store's specialty was popular priced merchandise; its byproducts included employment for scores of men and women, the L. Snyder Foundation, which has distributed scholarships to more than 250 Tidewater students and extensive philanthropies to sundry charities, hospitals, religious institutions and schools.

``Vanished department stores receive few memorials, but L. Snyder's has one - in the Snyder Foundation, which will outlive the source of its funds and civic concern,'' the writer concluded.

And, it might well have added, in the sense of community commitment that was passed to generation after generation of the family. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos including color cover by CHARLIE MEADS

From left, Kate Burns, co-chairman of the Virginia Beach Jaycees

First Citizens committee and Ray Counts, Virginia Beach Jaycees

president, watch as Ed Snyder reads the letter informing him that

he's been selected as this year's First Citizen.

``I didn't know there was any other way of doing things,'' said Ed

Snyder, president of Checkered Flag Motor Co.

Graphic

WHEN & WHERE

The First Citizen banquet honoring Edward B. Snyder is set for April

20 at the Founders Inn. Cocktails will be at 6:30, dinner at 7:30

p.m. Tickets are $35 each. Reservations must be made by Tuesday.

Call 498-5041.