Duane Lamar Snider

Our father, Duane Lamar Snider, passed away on Saturday April 3, 2021 of natural causes. Duane grew up in Salt Lake City with his sister Lois, brothers Lynn and Jerry, and parents, Velora and John, where he learned his love of gardening, planting trees, and participating in creative pranks with Jerry.
Duane attended Granite High School, where he was a State champion swimmer. He served in the U.S. Army Reserves from 1948 to 1953.
Duane worked as a bricklayer and iron worker before starting his career at the Chevron Salt Lake Refinery. Called “Duke” by his co-workers, he worked for 35 years until he retired, a legend, in 1990.
Duane married Phyllis Erma Larson in 1951 and had four children. With finances tight, family entertainment ran to more creative but inexpensive options including rock hunting in the desert, picking pine nuts or cutting wood, fishing, or driving backroads.
Duane could figure out how anything worked. He was a self-taught jack-of-all trades and could have built an entire house by himself. Friends and neighbors were always calling on him to fix things. He was a meticulous worker who could grow anything, but particularly enjoyed planting and pruning trees and building beautiful rock walls.
He was a shy man, but could talk to anyone. He would stop to help a stranger. It seemed like everywhere we went, we’d run into someone he knew.
We want to note that although Duane was declining in health, we believe the end of the daily printing of The Salt Lake Tribune was a contributing factor in his death. Not being able to hold the local newspaper in his hand every day was extremely distressing, since it was the highlight of each day.
He is survived by his children Debbie, Kelly (Celia), Kurt (Charlotte), and Kevin (Louise), his sister Lois Fetzer (Lee), sister-in-law Jeannine Snider, eight grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. Preceded in death by wife, Phyllis, parents, brothers, sister-in-law, son-in-law.
Phyllis passed away in 2010, and Duane’s greatest joy continued to be his family. He was the best dad and grandpa and “pop-great”. He loved attending his grandchildren/great-grandchildren’s events and games. His gruff exterior and growly cursing didn’t fool us. He took us everywhere he went, taught us to try to figure things out, and set an example of how to live a helpful, kind, and productive life. Our lives will be so much richer for having him in it, but so much emptier for having him gone.
The family would like to thank the staff at Canyon Hospice and Sagewood at Daybreak.
Interment at Bountiful City Cemetery by Russon Bountiful Mortuary. In lieu of flowers, please plant a tree, donate blood, or take your family out to a nice dinner and have a Dr. Pepper with no ice.