In the late 1960s, Dick Snyder and his wife Dale were busy juggling three children and their careers. Dale worked at Sparks State Bank while Dick split his time at Westinghouse Electric by day and Johns Hopkins University by night, taking courses in education. Dale was the rock of the family. She made sure they had a loving and healthy home, keeping everyone fed wherever they were. She sewed their pants, dresses, and ties from scratch. Dale literally stitched the family together.

 

By 1969, a chance meeting with Ruth Chapin not only changed the trajectory of Dick’s life, but that of his family. Ruth was Calvert’s Director of Admissions at the time. She overheard Dick sharing his frustration after being turned down to teach at a public school because he wasn’t certified. Mrs. Chapin asked him if he would be interested in teaching for a private school.

 

Soon after, Dick was hired by Bill Kirk to teach Eighth Age boys at Calvert School. “I give Bill Kirk credit for this,” recalled Dick. “He pieced together multiple jobs for me to do so that financially it would be acceptable.” In addition to teaching Eighth Age boys, Dick became the School’s Athletic Director and took on responsibilities in the business office.

 

As Dick made the transition into his new world of teaching, Rick and Steve were getting acclimated too. Both coming from public school, it was clear that this was going to be a transformative year.

 

Steve’s first year at Calvert was also his dad’s. Steve was the only one in the family to have his father as a teacher. “There were a lot of tears that year, sometimes Steve cried too,” recounted Dick with a chuckle. Steve said his father had a reputation of being strict. “I think he probably got that from Mrs. Sisal, because nobody crossed Mrs. Sisal.”

 

Rick began in the Ninth Age and remembered his first year coming from public school as a difficult year, but it was also “a wonderful opportunity to be a part of a different environment and have my dad there.”

 

Dick Snyder was everywhere and involved in everything at Calvert. He coached football along with Bill Kirk and the respective boys class teacher for each year. While Steve and Rick played every sport they could under their father, Stacy was clearly the best athlete in the family (according to her brothers); their mother Dale cheered them all on from the stands. Dick even started a wrestling program at Calvert. “He had no clue what he was doing,” Rick recalls with a smile, “but that was the beauty of it.”

 

In 1973, Stacy was old enough to join her brothers and father at Calvert. She remembered how hard it was for her, “I would cry and cry because I knew my Dad could hear me at the other end of the hall,” adding that the front of her teacher’s dress was wet for a long time from all of those tears. The Snyders were part of the fabric of Calvert. Dick and the children rode to school and back home with Mr. Kirk for years. Rick joked that he and his siblings may have been the only Calvert students who never skipped a day of school in their lives.

 

Mr. Gibbs, Mr. Gillet, Mr. Coady, and Mr. Patterson became more than just teachers. “What you don’t realize is the growth that happens from an integrity perspective, a trust perspective, and a sportsmanship perspective,” reflected Rick. “Shaking hands in the morning was a big deal. You didn’t just slink into school, you arrived.”

 

That notion of “arriving” stuck with all three Snyder children, who went on to apply those principles to their lives and careers. Rick serves as Vice Admiral in the U.S. Navy. He began his career as a Navy helicopter pilot, and it ultimately included serving in command of two helicopter squadrons, an amphibious assault ship, and all Navy amphibious forces on the east coast.

 

Steve’s 30 years of service in the U.S. Navy included flying combat missions over Iraq and a year-long tour in Afghanistan. Like his father, Steve then followed a path into education; he is now an adjunct professor, teaching undergraduates and developing curriculum at Regent University in Virginia Beach.

 

Education is also at the core of Stacy’s 30-plus year career at Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY). Stacy graduated from Hopkins with a master’s in behavioral science. She is currently the Marketing Coordinator for CTY but previously served in Talent Identification, Recruiting, and Marketing.

 

Dale remained the rock of this family until her passing in 2005.

 

In 1976, Dick moved on to become the Head of the Lower School at Gilman. From there, he served as Head Master at Cannon School in Concord, North Carolina, until his retirement.

 

During his retirement celebration, guests received a cup printed with a silhouette of Dick shaking hands with his granddaughter at Cannon School, the same way he would greet every student. Dick beamed with his cup in hand, “Where do you think I got that?”