Lowell M. Snare

Lowell M. Snare, age 74, of Clinton, NJ, passed away on Sunday, Nov. 24, 2019, at home after a valiant fight with long-vexing heart and other illnesses.
 
He was born on July 2, 1945, in Somerville, NJ, and spent his childhood on a farm near Sunnyside. His life was spent in Hunterdon County, even if he briefly resided elsewhere.
 
He was the son of the late Parker Franklin and Beatrice Fostinis Snare.
 
Lowell graduated from Trenton State College with his bachelor’s degree and from Montclair State University with his master’s degree. He was a proud 1963 graduate of North Hunterdon Regional High School.
 
In 1970, he left U.S. Bronze Powders in Flemington to work as a sports writer for local newspapers, for decades with the Hunterdon Review, but contributing to the Easton Express and finishing with the Hunterdon County Democrat. His encyclopedic knowledge and empathetic and positive connection with the athletes were widely admired and hugely appreciated. For years, he was the go-to guy with questions on statistics, records and milestone games. His writing in sports and feature stories frequently won state and national awards.
 
He published books of his own poetry and contributed with more than a dozen New Jersey sportswriters to “Covered Wooden Grandstands,” a collection of articles about 100-plus years of semi-pro baseball in the state. 
 
A fine athlete himself, Lowell was a varsity football player in high school, held the North Hunterdon 100-yard dash record, ran for Trenton State and played in summer adult baseball leagues. In the mid-1970s he organized and ran the Clinton Youth Basketball League for teenagers not on school teams.
 
Lowell lived and breathed covering sports. For decades, he could be found on the sidelines or in the bleachers for countless hours a week, and on the phone with coaches and kids for many others. In the mid-1970s, when the North Hunterdon Regional school district opened a second school called Voorhees High, he collaborated with Superintendent G. Clifford Singley to provide a rotating trophy to go to the winner of the annual football game between North Hunterdon and Voorhees. They decided on a 11-gallon milk can, painted gold with a green and red lid, with the year’s winning team name and game score painted annually.
Lowell was delighted when this season’s 44th annual Milk Can game was dedicated to him. He was overjoyed to see via livestream his family on the field and his grandson flip the coin to start the game.
 
Lowell was deeply involved with the schools, serving at various times as an attendance officer at Voorhees and a security aide at North.
 
Lowell was an avid duck decoy and model train collector. With his master’s degree in environmental studies, he spent part of his working life as an outdoor education teacher and naturalist for YMCA Camp Bernie and the county parks system. One of his favorite destinations to visit was Maine, even filing paperwork to name a speck in the Kennebec River near Bath as “Lowell Island.”
 
In the early 1990s, in recognition of Lowell’s fight against illnesses, the Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex athletic directors’ organization instituted a “most courageous athlete” annual award to a local high school athlete who “demonstrated courage and determination under adversity.”
 
Lowell will always be remembered for his puns, quips and wisecracks guaranteed to elicit a chuckle or a groan. He told the best jokes, which his family and friends will dearly miss. 
 
Survivors include his long-time companion, Lori Taborelli of Clinton, NJ, and two daughters, Stephanie Nemeth and her husband Mark of Bethlehem Twp., NJ, and Melanie Novacek and her husband Hutch of Annandale, NJ. There are four grandchildren -- Devon Hunt of Bethlehem Twp., Dylan Nemeth of Bethlehem Twp., Hutch Novacek of Annandale, and Noah Novacek of Annandale – and great-grandchildren Jared Hunt, Julian Hunt and Jordan Hunt.  He is also survived by one brother, Parker Snare, and his wife Sherryl of Easton, PA.
 
He is predeceased by siblings Sylvia Graham, Doris Kiceniuk and Jim Fostinis.
 
Calling hours will be Saturday, Nov. 30, 2019 from 2-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 1, 2019, from 2-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m. with memorial service on Sunday evening at 8 p.m., all at Scarponi-Bright Funeral Home, 26 Main St., Lebanon, NJ. Interment will be private.
 
Memorials can be made to Clinton First Aid & Rescue Squad, P.O. Box 5265, Clinton, NJ 08809.

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