A celebration of the life of late Flyers Chair ED SNIDER was held Thursday afternoon at Wells Fargo Center, and the "heartfelt 1-hour, 50-minute ceremony" included speeches from three of his children, business associates, friends, NHL Commissioner GARY BETTMAN, Philadelphia Mayor JIM KENNEY and Hockey HOFer BOB CLARKE, according to Sam Carchidi of the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER. Snider was "remembered as a man of passion and wisdom." JAY SNIDER, Ed's son and a former Flyers president, was "choked with emotion as he addressed the crowd." He said of his father, "The last full sentence he ever spoke was, 'I can't thank the Flyers enough for everything they've given to me and my family.'" Photos of Snider through the years "were shown during the ceremony, which organizers called a 'celebration of his life.'" A short film of Snider's career, narrated by JOHN BORUK of CSN Philadelphia, was "shown to a crowd estimated at 3,000." Comcast Chair & CEO BRIAN ROBERTS talked about Snider "starting Prism and all-sports WIP radio." Roberts: "Things that are taken for granted today, all came out of his head. He was a genius." He added Snider was "ferociously loyal" and the "perfect partner." Roberts said that Snider would "visit his late father, RALPH, when his health was failing." Roberts: "So this season, I had a chance to try to be there for Ed, at least a little bit." Roberts said that about 30 seconds after every Flyers victory this season, he "would phone Snider at his California home." Roberts: "No matter how sick or how much pain Ed was in, he wanted and needed to talk about the Flyers. Ed lived for those wins. I lived for those calls." Bettman said, "The fire in his eyes is now an eternal flame" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 4/22). Carchidi notes the ceremony was "televised live" by CSN Philadelphia and "streamed on the Flyers' website" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 4/22).
GENEROSITY RECALLED: In Philadelphia, John Smallwood notes all of the speakers at the ceremony "had the common theme that Snider was a caring man of high quality, who believed that the essence of success was to give back to the people who helped you succeed." Perhaps the "best example of that was the least famous of those who spoke during the ceremony." VIRLEN REYES, who benefited from the Snider Youth Hockey Foundation, recalled that she "wrote Snider a letter thanking him for creating the program," and Snider "invited her to meet him." Reyes: "I'm very proud to say I was the first Snider Hockey kid to go to college. I'm even prouder to say many have followed" (PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS, 4/22).
