News

Roger Snyder, a Mills River founder and its first mayor, dies unexpectedly

Roger Snyder is shown in a Lightning file photo.

By Bill Moss, Published: March 28, 2025

Roger Dale Snyder, a founder of the town of Mills River and its first mayor, serving for 10 years, died unexpectedly Thursday, March 27, after his wife found him unresponsive and he was transported to the hospital. He was 65.

His wife, Gayle, found him on the couch when she came downstairs around 7:30 a.m. Mills River Fire & Rescue reached the home first after Gayle's 911 call and "did everything they could do," said Ashley Ward, Snyder's daughter. County EMS transported him to AdventHealth, where he was pronounced dead.

Wearing farmer shirts, jeans and boots, Snyder was a go-getter who never confronted an obstacle too forbidding to overcome.

“He didn’t care if you were gonna call the governor, no matter who it was. It never fazed him,” Bill Lapsley, the Henderson County Board of Commissioners chairman who had known Snyder for 40 years, said Friday in an interview. “He’d say, 'Who do we need to call to get so-and-so approved? What’s the number? Do we need to go visit?’ He wouldn’t hesitate. Nothing fazed him.”

Snyder was interim mayor when the town incorporated in June 2003, then was elected mayor by the council that December. He led the town as mayor until 2013, when the council elected Larry Freeman to the top post, and continued his service on the council for nine more years.

Roger always made sure that if someone was having a stressful day, he would say “Slow and Easy,” reminding them to take a deep breath and not stress. His wisdom and warmth will be fondly remembered by all who knew him.

“I was in the fire department for 25 years, then got involved in the town stuff,” Snyder told the Lightning in January 2022 when he retired from the council. “The incorporation lasted about two years, so I’ve been on the town council in some form or fashion for 19 years. I figured it’s just time for me to go. Whenever you figure out it’s time to go you’re already late.”

Born May 31, 1959, to Phyllis Jean Tolley Snyder and James Richard Snyder in Brevard, Snyder spent his life dedicated to his family, Mills River community and career. A 1977 graduate of West Henderson High School, he spent 20 years of his professional life to Xerox, where he was known for his dedication and strong work ethic. He was a lifetime member of Mills River Fire Department, and he engaged in farming and the raising of Holstein calves.

His parents and a sister, Susan Snyder Sherman, preceded him in death. In addition to Gayle y Kearney Snyder, his devoted wife of 40 years, and Ashley, and her husband, Nick Ward, of Greenwood, South Carolina, Roger is survived by Taylor Snyder, and his wife, Anna Snyder, of Mills River, and grandchildren Easton Ward and Theo Snyder, who brought immense joy to his life. His passing was also mourned by many aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, and friends who loved him dearly.

Like Lapsley, Shanon Gonce, the town’s current mayor, was shocked to hear of Snyder’s death.

“He was always good and fair to me,” Gonce said. “Like I said in the meeting last night, we were about like an old married couple — we were in there together for so long. We didn’t always agree but however it came out we’d leave the meeting giggling and talking and patting each other on the back. We didn’t let the politics get in the way of our personal friendship.”

Gonce, a building contractor, had seen Snyder regularly in recent weeks.

“I put a new roof on his house after the storm because he had a tree come down and punch holes in it,” he said.

Although Gonce was acquainted with Snyder before, their relationship as town council members began in 2005 when the mayor invited Gonce to meet at 4 o’clock one afternoon “at the library next to the barbershop” to recruit him for a vacant council seat.

“Let’s talk about you running for council. Let me ask you a couple of questions,” Snyder told him. “He asked ’em and I answered. I don’t remember what they were but he said, ‘I think you’d be the right guy.’”

When the mayor asked Gonce if he knew where the elections board was, Gonce responded that he had no idea. Snyder offered to take him. But not before a warning: “It don’t pay nothing. It’s a nonpaying job.”

Lapsley and Snyder first met when Lapsley was a young civil engineer and Snyder was a young volunteer firefighter “probably 40 years ago,” Lapsley said.

“I was doing a water support certification for all the fire departments,” he said. “We surveyed ponds and things like that to get water support approved. They needed a licensed engineer to do that. We’d ride around and look at them.

“Then after that, in the’90s, I got involved because he was one of the leaders in Mills River that formed the town, that put that all together. They came to me and said, ‘How do we do this?’ I helped them prepare a map of the town and lobbied on their behalf with then-Sen. Apodaca,. We got the town approved and he became the first mayor and we were friends all the time he was on the town council.”

Then, in 2011, Snyder and Lapsley worked side by side again, along with a core group of economic development officials and elected leaders, on the recruiting effort to land Sierra Nevada, which was scouting to build an East Coast. The craft brew giant chose a site on the French Broad River on land owned by the heirs of the Westfeldts of Rugby Grange.

“Roger was a key player,” Lapsley said. “He became extremely close with Vaughan Fitzpatrick,” who owned the Ferncliff property land that had been developed as an industrial park. “I kept up with him. He called me every couple of months. As far as I knew, he was doing fine.”

In the Lightning interview three years ago, Snyder said he was satisfied that he had done his best for his hometown.

“I can look back and say, ‘Roger, you served the citizens well.’ Now it’s time to go home,” he said. “Probably the biggest accomplishment was Apodaca and (Rep.) Carolyn Justus streamlining our incorporation through the state — when Asheville was against us, the League of Municipalities was against us, Fletcher was against us."

A funeral service is scheduled for noon Friday, April 4, at Mills River United Methodist Church, with the Rev. Thomas Glenn officiating. The family will receive friends from 110 a.m.-noon to celebrate Roger's life and legacy. His family invites those who knew him to attend and share in the memories of a life well-lived. Church Street Funeral & Cremation is in charge of arrangements and an online registry is available at www.churchstreetfuneral.com.