Theodore A. “Ted” Snyder Jr., 85, died at his home in Walhalla, South Carolina, on June 29. The son of Theodore Allen and Rebecca Clark Snyder, he was born on December 17, 1932, in Greenville, S.C.
Ted had a long and distinguished career as a lawyer and a conservationist. After graduating from the University of Chicago in 1952, he earned a law degree “with distinction” from Duke University in 1955 and served in Korea as a Judge Advocate Lawyer with the 7th Infantry Division, eventually retiring as a Colonel in the reserves.
Following his military service, Ted settled in his hometown of Greenville, practicing law for many years with Thomas Wofford. After Wofford’s death, he opened his own law office in Walhalla where he practiced until his retirement in 1999. He was admitted to both the South Carolina Bar and the U.S. Court of Appeals, allowing him to practice before the Supreme Court.
Sometimes referred to as the “John Muir of the Southeast,” Ted joined the Sierra Club in 1966 and two years later organized the Carolinas Group of the Potomac Chapter. A subsequent safari in East Africa served to inform and inspire his life’s work: to protect wilderness in the Southeastern United States.
Ted served as the first chair of the Club’s Joseph LeConte Chapter (North and South Carolina), and in 1971 he organized the Appalachian Regional Conservation Committee. He was elected chair of the National Wilderness Committee in 1974, national treasurer in 1977, and national Sierra Club president in 1978. He also served on the Club’s National Outings Committee starting in 1980.
In the early 1970s, Ted was instrumental in establishing the Chattooga River -- the border between Georgia and South Carolina -- as a Wild & Scenic River, and in protecting South Carolina’s Congaree Swamp as a national park. He was also deeply involved in the Cohutta and Kilmer-Slick Rock Wilderness designations and the passage of the Eastern Wilderness Act in 1975.
One of his last and most notable achievements was successfully opposing the North Shore Road –- also known as the “Road to Nowhere” -- in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. For 35 years, Ted led the opposition to the North Shore Road on the grounds that it would have cut through the largest remaining tract of mountain wilderness east of the Mississippi. In a marvelous marriage of his legal and conservationist skills, he helped negotiate a financial settlement between the Department of the Interior, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the state of North Carolina, and Swain County, N.C. The settlement was finalized in 2010 and the Road to Nowhere was never built.
Ted was honored with the national Sierra Club’s Special Achievement Award, Walter A. Starr Award, and Joseph LeConte Award. In 2002, the National Parks & Conservation Association presented him with its Marjorie Stoneman Douglas Award for his work to protect wilderness in the Great Smoky Mountains.
Ted embraced and epitomized the Sierra Club motto to “explore, enjoy, and protect the planet.” He enjoyed photography, birding, skiing, climbing, paddling, and leading trips and organizing camporees. He is remembered by his son, Theodore A. Snyder III, a wildlife biologist with U.S. Forest Service in Helena, Montana, for his exceptional courage, optimism, and unwavering willingness to sit and listen in times of need.
In addition to his son, he is survived by two brothers, John and Charles Snyder, and predeceased by sibling Henry Snyder. Memorials may be made to the Carolina Mountain Club, the Sierra Club, or a conservation organization of choice.
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Top photo by Mush Emmons. Middle photo courtesy of Colby Library. Bottom photo courtesy of the Greenville News.