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Harry Snyder Obituary (1937 – 2023) – Santa Cruz, CA

Harry Snyder
September 29, 1937 – February 10, 2023
Harry M. Snyder, whose work as a consumer and health advocate has positively transformed the lives and health of Californians, passed away peacefully on Friday, February 10, 2023 at his home surrounded by his family. He was 85 years old.
Snyder was born in Los Angeles in 1937. His father, Paul Snyder, was a salesman and plumber, and his mother, Ruth C. Snyder, later became an artist. He attended Hamilton High School and then the University of Southern California and received a law degree from UCLA. In 1970, Snyder joined the Peace Corps as an associate director and later as a director. With his wife Vivian and their children, Snyder first moved to Bangalore, India, then Apia, Western Samoa and Kathmandu, Nepal. Snyder ran the various offices of the Peace Corps, working with state personnel and local diplomats, and coordinating volunteers who worked to support small business, education, agriculture, and government functions.
In 1975, Snyder drove with his family from Kathmandu to Paris in a Volkswagen van and later established a new home in Mill Valley, California.
Snyder became West Coast Director of the Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, in 1976, where he earned a reputation in the state legislature and corporate headquarters as one of California’s most persistent and outspoken consumer lobbyists. During his tenure, he strove for tougher regulations for utilities, insurers, and business interests, institutions he frequently accused of inciting fear and hollowing out Californians.
He led a class action lawsuit against Wells Fargo Bank for allegedly refusing checking accounts to customers without a credit card, and successfully shut down adult RV parks that denied families access to low-income housing. He took over milk pricing, pushed for affordable earthquake insurance, and held for-profit healthcare providers accountable for their promises when they switched from nonprofits.
He took his advocacy seriously but approached his work with humor.
“Free the Cheese,” was his slogan at the Consumers Union in 1981 to successfully persuade the federal government to release 30 million pounds of cheddar cheese stored in federal warehouses for distribution to needy families across the country. Pushing for surplus food distribution to low-income people was a major concern for Snyder. He also lobbied for the passage of federal and state legislation establishing markets for certified farmers.
“It’s not an act of kindness,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle after successfully trying to get health insurer Blue Shield to offer benefits for certain medical conditions and end waits on pre-existing conditions.
When he resigned from the Consumers Union in 2002 at the age of 65, the LA Times headlined: “Activist Retires From Consumer Group, But Not Fray.”
Over the next two decades, Snyder continued to fight for marginalized and underrepresented Californians. He taught advocacy at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health and co-founded a broader advocacy initiative at the school to help leaders learn how to create evidence-based systemic policy change. Hundreds of students who attended the school’s health advocacy seminars later became public health advocates themselves. In 2020, he co-authored Advocacy for Public Health Policy Change: An Urgent Imperative, published by the American Public Health Association.
Snyder was also a director at Cy Pres Funds and distributed more than $70 million in class action fines to appropriate recipients.
Harry and his wife Vivian Snyder were longtime students and practitioners of Vipassana meditation under the guidance of their teacher SN Goenka. For decades they taught 10-day meditation courses in Vipassana centers and in prisons.
They moved to Santa Cruz, California in 2013 and enjoyed traveling with grandchildren, hiking in Point Reyes, gardening and reading while he continued his work.
Harry Snyder is survived by his wife Vivian C. Snyder, three children and eight grandchildren.

Published by San Francisco Chronicle on February 15, 2023.

34465541-95D0-45B0-BEEB-B9E0361A315ATo plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

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