After 35 years as Sweet Home’s city attorney, Robert Snyder is preparing for life after law.
He’s being replaced by Blair Larson, the city’s erstwhile planning and economic development director, who is a trained lawyer and is taking over the role.
Snyder, 74, has outlasted his predecessors, including his father-in-law, Earl McFarlan, whose tenure as city attorney lasted 31 years.
Snyder can frequently be seen on Sweet Home’s streets, riding his bike or walking to and from his home in the west-side avenues. A quiet, unassuming man, he’s played a big part in the public life of Sweet Home over those years.
His career in Sweet Home certainly wasn’t the result of a grand plan. In fact, he kind of fell into it when he fell in love with McFarlan’s daughter, Candy. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here.
Snyder was born and spent his early years in Benkelman, Neb., before moving to Torrington, Wyo., where he attended all 12 grades and moved on to junior college.
While attending the local junior college, Snyder said, he realized he might be interested in being an attorney.
“It was just something that I thought about and people were talking about careers, and I thought it was a career I could handle and do, perform a service,” Snyder said.
He graduated from the University of Wyoming in Laramie in 1973, then moved on to the University of Wyoming Law School. After graduating from law school and passing the Wyoming Bar in 1977, Snyder decided to help his brother build a log cabin on the Oregon Coast, between Lincoln City and Neskowin.
He noted “I learned a lot of the skills” working with his brother on that log house, which still exists.
That relationship also led to another.
“My sister-in-law, my brother’s wife, had previously worked in Albany for a title company, and she had made a friend in Sweet Home,” he recalled. “That friend got married in Sweet Home and we came to the wedding.”
It was there that he met Candy McFarlan “and that’s how I got to Sweet Home,” Snyder said. “I started working for her father, who had been the city attorney since the 1950s.”
That was 1980. Snyder passed the Oregon Bar in 1981, the year he and Candy got married. She taught school in Sweet Home – at Foster, Pleasant Valley and Crawfordsville schools, retiring in 2015 after 30 years with the district.
They have two children: Nathan, who was born in 1984 and is a dentist in Salem with his wife Luisa, and their two children, Patrick and Isabel; and daughter Caitlyn, born in 1988, who is now an elementary school teacher in Portland.
Snyder said he practiced general law with his father-in-law, becoming assistant city attorney in 1981 and then, when McFarlin stepped down from the position in 1989, taking over as city attorney.
“As city attorney, my functions have been to prosecute misdemeanors in Sweet Home Municipal Court, and trials, motions and hearings,” Snyder said. “I’ve handled appeals to Circuit Court and I review and prepare documents and handle legal matters for the city and the council.”
Last May Snyder was presented a Dedication of Service Award for his 43 years of employment with the City of Sweet Home.
Bob Burford, who served as Sweet Home’s police chief for some 20 years, from from 1994 to 2013, said he first met Snyder when he joined the Sweet Home Police Department as a “slick sleeve” (no rank) officer in 1986.
“Throughout my 27 years with the department, Robert prosecuted almost all the misdemeanor cases that were investigated by the police department,” Burford said. “Police and prosecutors don’t always agree on the proper course of action in any given case, and as a sergeant and later, chief, he and I had some lively conversations. But Robert always listened and considered all points of view before deciding how to proceed.”
In the end, Snyder sought out a balance in deciding when and how to charge in any given circumstance, Burford noted.
“His integrity is beyond reproach,” he said.
Over the years Snyder has been involved in the community in a wide variety of capacities.
He joined the Presidents Club in the early 1980s, eventually assuming the role of president, a position he continues to fill.
“I helped them get tax-exempt status,” Snyder noted.
He also has served on the Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, as a board member for the Pregnancy Care Center, and as a Lions Club member before the local branch folded in the early 1990s. He was also active with the Sweet Home Highway 20 Committee, which helped get the highway expanded to four lanes through the Narrows.
Snyder was honored in 1986 with the First Citizen award by the Chamber of Commerce.
For many years he was active with the Boy Scouts, starting as a Cub Scout leader with Pack 362 in 1992, and moving on through the ranks to Scoutmaster.
Burford described Snyder as “a devoted” father and Scout leader.
Both Robert and his son are Eagle Scouts.
Robert said his Eagle Scout project was putting in a concrete parking lot at the Presbyterian church in Torrington. Nathan created a reconditioned light pole to serve as a flag pole for Camp Attitude, completing that project in 2000.
As Scoutmaster with Troop 360, Snyder led his troop in two 50-mile hikes, one in the Wallowa
Mountains, and in 1997 took the Scouts on and along the Missouri River.
Ben Dahlenberg, who was a Scout leader along with Snyder, remembers that Missouri trip, which followed the Lewis and Clark Trail and, Dahlenberg said, was “actually 70 miles – they just got a 50-mile badge for it.”
Snyder, he said, “was very dependable and was always there” for the Scouts.
“He sure is a nice guy. He does have a sense of humor, but it’s very dry.”
Snyder also has been a longtime member of and quite active at Hillside Fellowship Church.
“I started attending in 1981, where I serve as an usher, and doing maintenance and as a trustee,” he said. “Service to my family and church and community is what makes life enjoyable.”
Dahlenberg said a lot of Snyder’s service takes place under the radar.
“He goes up often by himself, just to do maintenance at the church,” Dahlenberg said. “He’s kind of the ghost maintenance guy. That’s the kind of guy he is, always in the background. He’s not one to receive accolades.”
Snyder said he also plans to continue serving in his church and the other organizations he’s involved in, now that he’s winding down his professional career. He said he plans to do things he hasn’t been able to while working in public life.
“I intend to travel some, see some places I haven’t seen,” he said. “Like other folks, I’ve got work to do around the house, things that need to get done.”
Mayor Susan Coleman said Snyder has quietly contributed much to Sweet Home’s public life.
“Robert Snyder is truly one of a kind – there are few like him,” she said. “He is a man of unwavering integrity, who dedicated himself wholeheartedly to the City of Sweet Home.
“Don’t be misled by his quiet demeanor; his sharp intellect, insightful mind, and generous nature have been a huge asset to our community for all these years. We are grateful for his service, dedication and that, although he has retired, he is still a valuable member of our community.
“We wish him all the best on this next chapter of his life.”