Donald Ray Snow (93) passed away on December 16, 2024, in Provo, Utah. His final illness was due to complications from a broken vertebra. His mind stayed sharp until the very end. He was born on March 19, 1931, to Mary Lavier Baker and Eldon Stafford Snow in Los Angeles, California. He and his brother, Dick, spent their days running in the fields of Tarzana and North Hollywood, swimming, picking fruit, and raising rabbits. After graduating from North Hollywood High School in 1948, he studied at UCLA for two years before serving a 30-month mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Central American Mission, serving in Mexico and Guatemala. After his mission, he joined the U.S. Navy during the Korean War and served two years in San Diego. He then attended Brigham Young University, where he met his future sweetheart, Diane Manwaring, while dating her roommate. He transferred to the University of Utah (and transferred his affections to Diane) and earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and mathematics. Don and Diane were sealed in the St. George temple on March 21, 1958, by his uncle, Harold Snow, the temple president. While at the U, he served in a student ward bishopric with Oscar McConkie and Neal A. Maxwell.
He continued his education at Stanford University, where Don Jr. and Linda were born. He earned master's degrees in mechanical engineering and mathematics and a doctorate in Mathematics. They moved to Minneapolis for a postdoctoral appointment teaching mathematics at the University of Minnesota, where Judy and Kathy joined the family. The family moved to Boulder for Don to teach at the University of Colorado. While there, Jenny was born. Don and Diane settled in Provo, Utah, where Don taught mathematics at Brigham Young University for the rest of his career. In Provo, their sixth child, Jim was born.
Don especially enjoyed teaching graduate-level math classes. He had a passion for combinatorics and functional equations. Don was always thinking of math. Always wearing a pocket protector, he carried a notepad and pencil and would write down equations as they came to him. Recently, Don had a dream that led him to the solution of a math problem that had puzzled him for years. He loved talking about math with his many brilliant grandchildren. Don took the family to Lima, Peru, for a six-month Fulbright teaching appointment for the U.S. State Department in 1974. They also spent a year in 1976 at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. He volunteered as a math professor at Nauvoo University in Illinois. Throughout his career, he traveled extensively, presenting his research and making friends in many countries. Don officially retired from BYU's Mathematics Department in 2000. After retirement Don and Diane lived winters in St George, Utah. The last two years of his life, Don lived at the Courtyard at Jamestown in Provo where he enjoyed stimulating conversations with life-long friends.
Don served many years as the Executive Secretary of the Edgemont and Edgemont South Stakes. He magnified his calling: staying up late typing agendas on his manual typewriter, taking extensive notes, and recording every stake meeting. Possessing a remarkable memory, he knew everyone in the stake and remembered them for the rest of his life. Although a self-professed introvert, he made friends everywhere and could make a connection with anyone. He loved his service as the bishop of the Edgemont 8th ward. He began studying counseling and marriage therapy to better serve his ward. He and Diane taught Marriage Preparation classes together when he served on the high council of a BYU stake.
A great-grandson of Erastus Snow, Don has always been passionate about researching his ancestors. He loved portraying Erastus in the "St. George LIVE!" tours. Don and Diane served four family history missions for the Church: directors of the Family History Center in Manhattan, creators of the Early Latter-day Saints Database in Nauvoo, Illinois, and family history specialists in both the Family History Centre in London, England and the Family History Center in St. George, Utah. Don and Diane taught hundreds of family history classes together until she passed away in 2012. He continued teaching classes until a few weeks ago. He was a founding member of the Utah Valley PAF Users Group (now Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group) and continued as an officer until his death.
Don was an avid collector of books, magazines, scholarly journals, stamps, coins, vinyls, cassettes, CDs, and sheet music. He frequented thrift stores looking for "treasures." He worked as a teenager at a record store in Los Angeles, where he met many famous musicians. Don recently donated his vast music collection to the Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/vinyl_donald-r-snow-records. His favorite genres were jazz, blues, big band, Hawaiian, and comedy. He played the piano by ear with a jazzy style. As a boy, Don's father, Eldon, encouraged him to learn the accordion because of his own experience hearing accordion music in the trenches of World War I. Don took his accordion on his mission to Central America, accompanying hymns and playing at activities. The accordion came out occasionally to entertain the family with "Roll Out the Barrel" and "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue." He started performing concerts at nursing homes in his retirement. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he played a concert nightly on his front porch. These concerts included a variety of his "dad jokes," which he laughed along with his audience. He practiced daily, expanding his repertoire, which kept his fingers and mind nimble. He gave an accordion to any of his grandchildren who wanted to play. Fifteen took up the offer, and, per his request, they are going to play at his funeral.
Don was consistent in his habits. He swam laps daily for exercise, swimming a kilometer each year on his birthday. He read the scriptures and recorded an audio journal nightly (with recordings beginning in 1973). Don and Diane sponsored an annual family reunion for the past 35 years. This became a beloved tradition and cemented deep family ties, allowing relatives who, in most families, might never meet or know one another, to develop close and lasting relationships. At one reunion, they assigned "Snow Numbers" to each person based on when they joined the family. There are currently 104 Snow numbers. Don loved all his posterity and knew and remembered details about each one. His open mind and heart accepted everyone. He valued education and helped fund many missions and graduate degrees.
He was deaf in one ear since childhood and had increasingly diminished hearing in his "good ear" as he aged. Over the last years of his life, he also lost most of his vision due to macular degeneration. He had trust that these physical ailments would be perfected in the resurrection.
Donald Ray Snow is preceded in death by his parents, Mary Lavier Baker and Eldon Stafford Snow; brother, Sidney Richard Snow; loving wife, Diane Manwaring Snow; oldest son, Donald Ray Snow Jr.; and son-in-law, Kevin Westover. He is survived by his daughter-in-law, LeAnn Magnusson Snow; children, Linda Westover, Judy (Lance) Spencer, Kathleen (Thomas) Gill, Jennifer (Michael) Jackson, and James Robert (Jennie McElwee) Snow; 30 grandchildren and 38 great-grandchildren with more Snow numbers to come.
Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m., Monday, December 30, 2024 at the Edgemont 9th Ward Chapel (4300 North Canyon Road, Provo, Utah). The family will receive friends at the church prior to services on Monday from 9:30-10:30 a.m. Interment will follow in the Eastlawn Memorial Hills Cemetery. Condolences may be extended at www.bergmortuary.com. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a donation to Brigham Young University at http://philanthropies.churchofjesuschrist.org or to macular degeneration research at https://healthcare.utah.edu/moran/giving.
The services will be broadcast online at https://nyu.zoom.us/j/94169247878.