GREENSBORO — William Davis (Bill) Snider, 91, former editor of the Greensboro News-Record, died on Saturday, January 28, 2012 at his home, Well-Spring Retirement Community.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Monday, January 30 at First Presbyterian Church. The family will receive friends after the service in the Virginia Gilmer Room.
A man of principle and conviction, Snider covered North Carolina politics and government with insight and wisdom for more than three decades. He was a leader in the fight for civil rights in Greensboro and was active in his community and his church. His love of the written word began as a young boy when he started a neighborhood newspaper and continued through his work as a journalist, an editor and an author. He loved the natural world and anything related to the people, the politics and the history of the state of North Carolina. Kind and gregarious, he had a twinkling sense of humor and was dearly loved by all his family.
Mr. Snider was a native of Salisbury, NC, born there on June 7, 1920, son of William Marvin and Mildred Telfair (Davis) Snider. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1941 with an AB in Journalism. During World War II he served with the U.S. Army Signal Corps in India-Burma (1942-46), discharged as a lieutenant.
Mr. Snider's journalistic career began as a reporter for The Salisbury Evening Post after which he became private secretary to Gov. R. Gregg Cherry and later administrative assistant to Gov. W. Kerr Scott. He returned to journalism as associate editor of the old Greensboro Daily News and the Greensboro Record in 1965 and serving in that capacity and later as editorial page editor of both papers, until his retirement in 1982.
Then, continuing to write his Sunday column for the News & Record, he turned to the writing of two books, both published by the University of N.C. Press: Helms & Hunt, The North Carolina Senate Race, 1984; and Light on the Hill, a History of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1992.
Mr. Snider was married in 1948 to Florence A. Lide of Florence, S.C., and they are parents of four daughters: Jane Telfair Snider Finalborgo of Southampton, N.Y.; Mary Alice Cordon Snider Lodico of Waynesville, N.C.; Florence Lide Snider Kaplan of Greensboro; and Mildred Telfair Davis Snider Rixey of Tappahannock, Va. His daughters, along with their 12 children and his six great-grandchildren were the delight of his life. These grandchildren are: Evan James Folds, William Victor Finalborgo, Mary Cordon Folds McGee, Mary Catena Finalborgo, Michael Edward Lodico, Jr., Richard Cassius Lee Moncure, Jr., Anna Jane Lodico Nishimura, Virginia Davis Moncure Horstman, Margaret Lide Moncure, Maxwell Lide Kaplan, Caroline Stewart Moncure, and William Marcus Kaplan.
In 1974 Mr. Snider served as president of the National Conference of Editorial Writers. He was also a member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, a correspondent for Newsweek magazine and served on the Pulitzer Prize Jury.
