Edward M Snider

Ed Snider died April 11 2016 after a two-year battle with bladder cancer at the age of 83. He was the Philadelphia Flyers' chairman and cofounder. He brought the Flyers to Philadelphia 50 years ago and introduced millions of people to what, at the time, seemed like a foreign sport. Ed Snider’s emergence as a leader in the Philadelphia sports market started in 1964 as vice president with the Philadelphia Eagles. Two years later, he transformed sports in the City of Philadelphia when he mortgaged his home to establish a National Hockey League franchise as the founder of the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers were quick to succeed and became the first expansion team to capture the coveted Stanley Cup when they won it in 1974 and again in 1975. Similarly, he became the driving force behind the Spectrum, Philadelphia’s iconic arena and home to the Flyers and National Basketball Association Philadelphia 76ers when, once again, he used his own financing to buy it out of bankruptcy in 1971. In 1996, Snider merged the management company Spectacor with the Comcast Corp. to form Comcast-Spectacor. Ed Snider owned 24 percent of Comcast-Spectacor, the Flyers' parent company. Comcast Spectacor has three businesses: the Philadelphia Flyers, the Wells Fargo Center and Spectra, the company’s hosting and entertainment division. Growing up in Washington, Ed Snider got into scraps at a young age, his son said, because he would get picked on by kids who belittled his Jewish heritage. At the time of his death, Snider was worth an estimated $2.5 billion. In addition to their California home, Mr. Snider and his wife, Lin, lived in suburban Philadelphia. Mr. Snider was married four times. SportsInput.com reported that Mr. Snider proposed to Lin Spivak at a swanky Santa Barbara, Calif., restaurant late in 2012. Ed Snider was a proud graduate and generous benefactor of the University of Maryland. He received the prestigious Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Maryland in 2012. He and the Snider Foundation funded his alma mater in 2014 to create the Ed Snider Center for Enterprise and Markets. He was also a benefactor of the Sol C. Snider Entrepreneurial Center of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania; a member of the board of directors of the Simon Wiesenthal Center; and a founder and dedicated contributor to the Ayn Rand Institute. In addition to his wife and son, Jay, Mr. Snider is survived by former wives Martha McGeary and Christine Decroix; sons Craig and Samuel; daughters Lindy, Tina, and Sarena; and 15 grandchildren. His first wife, Myrna Snider, predeceased him.