Jack Snyder – a man who made it his business to build a better community – is being honored as the recipient of the 2009 Manteca Chamber of Commerce’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Snyder is receiving the chamber honor during the 86th installation and awards banquet on Saturday, June 6, starting at 6 p.m. at The Emory, 1028 W. Yosemite Ave. Tickets are $40 for the black tie optional event. Tickets are available at the chamber office by calling 823-6121.
Les Thomas is receiving the chamber’s Distinguished Service Award for his community activities as well as being the organizer of flag distribution and retrieval since the inception of Flags over Manteca.
Eric Murtrey will be installed as president replacing Kirk Dall.
Those nominated for large business of the year are Doctors Hospital of Manteca, South San Joaquin Irrigation District, Mt. Valley Express, Wal-Mart, Merrill Gardens at Manteca, Bank of Stockton, Carl’s Junior Warehouse, and Pacific Gas & Electric.
Nominees for small business of the year are Raymus Homes, Monogram Magic, Perez & Son, Chez Sheri, AKF, Holiday Inn Express, and State Farm-Crystal Downs.
The Mabel Brocchini Service Award nominees are Pastor Mike Dillman, John Coburn, Kirk Dall, and Dave Byrd.
The Gladys Brock Chamber Service Award nominees are the Manteca Fire Department, The Commons at Union Ranch, Chip DeVito, and Nick Founts.
The non-profit business award nominees are Mamma Ministry, Second Harvest Food Bank, Manteca CAPS, Agape Villages, South County Crisis Center, and Knights of Columbus.

Snyder is the man responsible for putting in motion action that helped Manteca secure the 52-acre jewel of the municipal park system for just $1.
It is one in a long list of community endeavors Snyder has been credited with during the past 40 plus years plus 25 years of serving on the Manteca City Council including as one of the city’s handful of directly elected mayors.
 “It is for all he’s accomplished for Manteca,” noted Manteca Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Officer Debby Moorhead of Snyder’s honor. “The list is long. We just feel it was a long time coming for him to get the recognition for the job he’s done.”
Snyder, 82, was the longest serving councilman in Manteca history essentially serving almost a third of the time that Manteca has been an incorporated city.
Woodward Park stands out as the one project that he essentially was both the architect of the concept and the promoter who made it happen.
Long before a single home was built south of the Highway 120 Bypass, Snyder had the vision that the community — which was about half its current population in the mid-1980s when he first pitched the idea — needed a community park to provide more recreational activities for youth.
Snyder approached the partnership that provides the financial backing of Atherton Homes and secured the deal of the 20th century — $1 for the 52 acres with no strings attached.
That meant the developers would still have to pay full freight for park fees for each new home they built despite the land being worth almost $4 million when the first tree was planted a little over nine years ago.
He was on the council when a brutal recall campaign removed Mayor Trena Kelley and then council members Bobby Davis and Rick Wentworth. Snyder ended up being the second directly elected Manteca mayor. Warren replaced him in 1990.
His first tenure on the council occurred during several other dark episodes at City Hall including the city’s inability to keep up with growth that drove Manteca to the cusp of bankruptcy and depleted reserves down to $1,800. He was part of the City Council that put in place the Northern San Joaquin Valley’s first growth cap policy.
Snyder played a pivotal role twice in securing funding for the Highway 120 Bypass. Once when citizens and the council succeeded in getting the route relocated out of downtown on Yosemite Avenue to its present location and a second time when a barrier was put in place after 34 people died in less than three years of the new highway that was originally built with a travel lane in each direction with an alternating passing lane.

Snyder was appointed to the council in December 2002 to fill the remaining two years of Willie Weatherford’s council seat after he was elected as mayor. He was re-elected in 2004. Moorehead defeated Snyder in 2008.
Major projects that have taken place during his second tour on the City Council included laying the ground work for the city to snag the Promenade Shops at Orchard Valley lifestyle mall anchored by Bass Pro Shops, the Stadium Retail Center anchored by Costco, and the Big League Dreams sports complex.
Snyder is a retired Libbey-Owens-Ford industrial relations manager.
Snyder is currently the captain for the Manteca Seniors Helping Area Residents and Police and a director of the Give Every Child a Chance board that provides free tutoring services.
He was one of the key people who got the Boys & Girls Club started 30 years ago and has served on the board and as president. He also is credited with launching the telethon 30 years ago. The event has not only turned into a Manteca tradition but is the club’s largest source of funding to provide services to 1,400 youth in Manteca and Lathrop.
He has served as president of the Manteca Historical Society, United Way campaign chairman, East Union Cemetery Board chairman, Community Prayer Breakfast Committee chairman, the Doctors Hospital of Manteca advisory board, district chairman for the Boys Scouts, East Union High Athletics Boosters Club president, held every post and county office in the American Legion and is a former member of the Manteca Morning Rotary Club. He is currently a member of the Manteca Noon Kiwanis.
Snyder and his family moved to Manteca in June of 1962 from Toledo, Ohio, to help open the LOF plant in Lathrop.