David Harmon Snow, Master Mechanic, Craftsman, Chef, Dies at 81
David Harmon Snow, who lived the last year of his life at the Mass Veterans Soldier’s
Home in Holyoke MA, died in the presence of family members on Friday, July 7,
2017, after a steady decline due to cancer.
Born in Pittsfield MA on May 12, 1936, and following the unexpected drowning of
his father in 1943, David and his twin sister Carol spent their early childhood years
in Florida and Louisiana before the family settled in Lanesboro MA, where his
mother Doris Brundage remarried Charles Noel and the twins’ sister Holly and
brother Christopher were born.
David attended Pittsfield High School and helped his family run the Dutch Kitchen
restaurant on Route 7 in Lanesboro MA, until his enlistment in the U.S. Army Air
Corps in February 1954. In June 1954 he transitioned into the U.S. Air Force. A
mechanic specializing on the Boeing B-29 Superfortress with the 59 th Weather
Reconnaissance Squadron, he was stationed at Manhattan Beach Air Force Station in
Brooklyn NY and later at Kindley Air Force Base in Bermuda (1955-1958).
While based in Bermuda he married his wife Sondra Black of Williamsburg MA; the
couple met at a ‘Chicken-of- Tomorrow’ national 4-H poultry contest in 1954.
David followed his active military service (1954-1958) with four years of Reserve
Duty obligations and received an Honorable Discharge in 1962.
David and Sondra Snow had three children and settled in Williamsburg MA, with
David employed (1959-1961) as a pinsetter mechanic at the Atlantic Ten Pin Lanes
in Northampton MA, and later for that company in Waterville Maine (1962-1964),
before moving back to live at the Black family’s ancestral Egesta Farm in
Williamsburg MA.
In the late 1960’s David began working as a cook at the Whale Inn (Goshen MA),
from which he was recommended (1969) to the Culinary Institute of America in
New Haven CT, and graduated into several decades of employment as Head Chef at
The Whale Inn (Goshen MA), The Williams House (Williamsburg MA) and The Jolly
Bull (Hadley MA).
He also volunteered in Holland in the 1990s for a non-government organization
involved in wind production and community development, and worked as a
caretaker for a private property and for the 4-H Camp Howe in Goshen MA.
David spent his elder years tinkering with and trading antique machines at old
engine and antique car shows. He was also an expert craftsman of fine quality wood
products, and an expert (though incorrigible) fresh- and saltwater fisherman.
David is remembered by: his daughter Dawn L. (Snow) White and her husband Karl
of Hancock MA, his granddaughter Lindsay Wilson and his great-grand daughter
Hunter McDonald; by his grandson Dwight Wilson and wife Danielle, and his great
grandson Henry Wilson; by his grandson Lane Wilson; by his son Keith Harmon
Snow of Williamsburg MA, and his grandson Birch Ivo Snow Aronson; by his son
James A. Snow and wife Michele of Agawam MA, and his grandchildren Laura and
Andrew; by his sister Holly (Noel) Wilson; and by his brother Christopher Noel, and
several nieces and nephews.
David was especially thankful for the care provided by the dedicated staff at the
Mass Soldier’s Home, and for the many friends he made while living there.
The Williamsburg Funeral Home is entrusted with the cremation. There will be a
brief public service for David Harmon Snow at the Agawam Veteran’s Cemetery,
1390 Main Street, Agawam, MA, at 1:00 PM on Thursday, July 13, 2017.
Any donations in his name may be made in c/o David Harmon Snow, Holyoke Soldier’s
Home, 110 Cherry Street, Holyoke MA 01040.