Legacy isn’t what’s left behind, but what we continue | Commentary
Published 9:05 am Tuesday, March 24, 2026
Larry Snyder is a longtime Seattleite, a philanthropist, fundraiser, auctioneer, Starbucks community champion, and a familiar face in the local nonprofit community. I’ve known him since the spring of 2024 through a monthly “blue, red, and purple” conversation group, where we meet to discuss different perspectives on polarized topics. I’ve also run into him at various fundraising events. Hearing him speak recently at Rotary gave me a clearer sense of who he is, and how his legacy is shaped by the five people he honors.
Larry described his mother, Jean E. Snyder, as the one who set the example for everything he understands about service, instilling in him and his five sisters a desire to make life better for others. She ran daycare centers in some of the toughest parts of Seattle, including the old Holly Park. One morning, two girls were dropped off and never picked up. She was supposed to call authorities, but instead brought them home. It was meant to be one night. When no one came back the next day, she made the same choice again. “Begging my father for her outrageous compassion,” he said, “little Anna and Mary came home for a second night, and for 12 years after that.” After she passed, his family asked how they could honor her. Through Larry’s work in West Africa, they built a school in her name in Sierra Leone, working with Schools for Salone. “This is the legacy I follow,” he said. Today, that school serves about 200 children each year.
Larry shared that his father’s legacy was centered around family, generosity, and community. He loved Lake Chelan and trips to Hawaii. After his passing, the family chose to honor him in ways that reflected that by using the money he left behind, with the instruction to “make other people happy.” Now every year on his father’s birthday, Larry’s family buys ice cream for everyone at a small resort on Lake Chelan, a simple tradition that reaches hundreds of people. On top of that, they also helped build a home for a family in Guatemala. To Larry, honoring his dad means sharing small moments of joy and creating something lasting for others.
His grandfather, MC “Charlie” Snyder, helped build both a furniture business and a community in Burien during a time when the region was expanding quickly. What stood out most for Larry was not his role in business, but how he brought people together, including through community events like hydroplane races. Later in life, he volunteered as an early patient for what became coronary bypass surgery, working with Dr. Lester Savage. That decision helped advance a procedure that now saves hundreds of thousands of lives each year. Larry honors his grandfather’s legacy by carrying forward that same sense of community through his work as a philanthropist, fundraiser, and community organizer.
Larry met Brandon Brauns while hosting a St. Jude fundraising event in 2011. Brandon was just 8 years old and had already spent years battling a rare brain tumor. Larry described him as “witty, optimistic, and curious,” even through treatment. What stayed with him most was that Brandon invited him into his journey, including radiation treatments and time at home. When Larry asked why he kept going, Brandon said, “Because I want to be as tall as you one day.” Through that relationship, Larry became connected to Dr. Jim Olson’s work at Seattle Children’s and began supporting Tumor Paint, a treatment that helps surgeons see and remove cancer more clearly. Brandon did not survive, but Larry sees his legacy in the lives that continue to be impacted by that work.
Rachel Beckwith was someone Larry never met, but whose story stayed with him. He was introduced to her through a local men’s group that was working to honor her life after she died. Rachel was a 9-year-old girl killed in a tragic accident on I-90 in 2011. Before she died, she had been raising money to bring clean water to children in Africa, but had not reached her goal. Through Twitter, more than $1 million was raised in her name. “It was the first time I’d seen how the internet had the potential to scale a fundraising effort,” he said. For Larry, that’s how Rachel’s legacy continues, something she started, carried forward by others.
Listening to Larry, I kept thinking about what it means to define legacy by carrying people forward. When I asked where to start, his answer was simple: start with honor. Follow the example of someone who made a difference. It doesn’t have to be big. Maybe that’s what legacy is, not what we leave behind, but what we choose to continue. That, more than anything, is who Larry is, someone who honors others by carrying them forward through service. Maybe Mercer Island Rotary is a place to start.
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Linnea Augustine is a Mercer Island resident, a member of the Rotary Club of Mercer Island, a supporter of the Mercer Island Schools Foundation, and a guest columnist for the Mercer Island Reporter.
