Kenneth Cober Snider (1933 - 2013)
Ken Snider was born on a farm near Toronto, the youngest of three children. He played hockey as a kid using Sears catalogues as shin pads when his family could not afford his equipment.1)
In 1954, Snider joined the Church Army, now called Threshold Ministries, and made his way to the north.2) Ken and Aldene were married in Advik in 1958 and they ministered in Inuvik for three more years. In 1964, Ken entered Emmanuel & St. Chad's School of Theology. In 1967, the family drove to Toronto where Ken was ordained in his home Anglican church by Bishop Henry Marsh of the Diocese of the Yukon. The family drove to Elsa for a few months waiting for a new house in Dawson to be finished but still had to live upstairs in the old Dawson Parish Hall until it was completed. When John and Peter were playing hockey, Ken started coaching a group of boys, spending hours at the unheated rink and driving the team to other communities.3)
In 1967, Ken started an 11-year ministry at St. Paul's Anglican Church in Dawson and at Clinton Creek. He was ordained a priest by the newly elected Bishop John Frame in Dawson. In the fall, he started the first kindergarten program in Dawson with volunteer teacher Palma Berger. Ken began the St. Paul's Restoration Fund to restore the 1902 church. He was also able to purchase and restore the Bishop Stringer Residence. Sons Peter and John expanded their Snider's Mowing Service by buying a derelict house and cabin on the corner of Craig and 7th . Ken was the titled owner of the old Ferry Hotel and Saloon and Ken and Aldene later took on the huge task of restoring the cabin and making a retirement home.4)
Ken was made Canon of the Diocese of the Yukon in 1975. He was transferred to Whitehorse and Christ Church Cathedral in 1978 and later made Dean of the Cathedral by Bishop Ron Ferris. In 1982, they went back to the Inuvik ministry with youngest son Richard. In 1988, Ken was transferred back to Elsa under Bishop Ron Ferris and given the title Archdeacon of the Klondike with responsibility for Elsa, Mayo, and Pelly Crossing. Elsa closed right after Christmas so Ken and Aldene moved to Mayo and Richard moved to Whitehorse with his brothers and sisters to finish high school. Ken's perish grew to include Pelly Crossing and Carmacks.5)
Ken and Aldene acquired funding to open and run the Western Arctic Visitors Centre in Dawson during the summer months and Aldene worked at the Centre. In July 1998, Ken and Aldene retired to Dawson.6) Ken was appointed to the Yukon Historic Sites and Monuments Board and as an observer at the national level. Each summer he delivered a series of Saturday night talks on the history of the Christian churches in the Klondike area. Ken was an early president of the Klondike Visitors Association and helped to found and licence the first legal casino in Canada, Diamond Tooth Gerties. Ken offered a communion service each Wednesday at the Macdonald Lodge and visited many of the elders in the community. He sat on the board of the Yukon Council on Aging and was a chair of the Dawson Seniors Society. Ken could often be seen shovelling snow at the YOOP Hall, the Legion Hall, and around the Richard Martin Chapel. In 2013, Reverend Snider received a Commissioner’s Award for his community service.7) Ken Snider is remembered as a man of faith with a deep love for the north and its people.8)