Cathleen Ann Kay Snyder

Snyder, Cathleen Ann (Collins) “Kay”, 85, died Saturday morning, April 11. Rosary will be 7:00 P.M., Sunday, April 19. Memorial Mass will be held at 10:00 A.M., Monday, April 20 both at the Church of Blessed Sacrament, 124 N. Roosevelt, in Wichita. Kay was born on August 1, 1929 and is preceded in death by parents, Katherine (Leahy) Collins and George Bernard Collins, and her husband Melvin Snyder, all of Wichita, and many beloved aunts, uncles, cousins, and in-laws. She is survived by her six children, John Henry (Patricia) of Las Vegas, NV, Janet Ellen (Jeff Greenham) of Morgantown, WV, Mary Anne Shall (John McCarthy) of Richmond, VA, Ann Katherine Rishell (Michael) of Wichita, Susan Dolores (Michael Gebert) of Chicago, IL, and Robert Melvin George (Gina) of Powder Springs, GA; grandchildren, Matthew Melvin George Snyder (Allison), Mark John Joseph Snyder, Juliette Sabine Rishell, Myles Henry Snyder Gebert, Liam George Snyder Gebert, Miller Henry Snyder, and Kathleen Ann Snyder; and great grandchild Brooke Reilly Snyder. Also surviving are siblings Mary Dolores (Collins) Crum (Charles), Robert Maurice Collins, Bernard George Collins, all of Wichita, and Joanne (Collins) Powers (Neil) of Del Mar, CA. A native Wichitan, Kay saw the world while staying firmly grounded in the importance of her hometown. Early in her life - after Cathedral High School, the University of Kansas, and Katharine Gibbs School in Chicago - she became an executive assistant at Good Housekeeping magazine in New York. She returned to Wichita and worked closely as a secretary with Harry Corbin as he brought the University of Wichita into the state system of higher education. It was while she was at Wichita State she met Dr. Melvin H. Snyder, an aeronautical engineer and a member of the WSU faculty. Their six children, seven grandchildren, and great-grandchild were the center of her life. Yet Kay Snyder stayed committed to the issues of her hometown. She worked for access, equality, and inclusion as a leader with such organizations as the Phyllis Wheatley Childrens Home, the Junior League of Wichita, WSU Dames, and the Girl Scouts. While her formal involvement in these organizations kept her focus, she also worked to make sure to include the informal and the personal as part of her mission of assistance, caring for mothers of newborns and quietly figuring out ways to help those in need. In lieu of flowers, memorials have been established with Wichita State University Foundation, Professor Melvin H. Snyder Scholarship, Department of Aerospace Engineering; and with The Lords Diner, Wichita, KS. Downing Lahey Mortuary East.