Update [2007-2-15 17:51:8 by dajafi]: Dave's family has requested that memorial contributions be made to Neland Ave. CRC for Scholarships for Christian Education. Those interested in contributing can contact phillychuck at cc06@lehigh.edu for more information.
All of us at The Good Phight, and Phillies phans all over the world, are deeply saddened tonight at the loss of our friend Dave Snyder, who died today in a one-car accident near his home in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He was 50 years old. His wife, Marlyce, was in the car with him and injured in the crash, and is in fair condition at a nearby hospital.
Dave was the creator and proprietor of Philliesphans.com, the site where we at TGP first met a few years ago. He was also the founder and president of MVP Software, which he founded in 1985. Dave took his philliesphans handle, mvpsoft, from the company.
He was an extraordinary man of many interests and talents, funny, acerbic, principled, passionate for the Phillies and, to a lesser extent, the other Philadelphia teams, devoted to his family and his church, very committed to his community. He was also a man of very strong views, and just about all of us argued with him at one time or another on topics from baseball to politics to religion to how he ran his website.
But the arguments had the quality of family squabbles, because the site Dave built was so good, so compelling, that he and so many of the other regulars on it came to feel, for me at least, really like family. Dave ran philliesphans on an entirely voluntary basis, paying for the site out of his own pocket; his perspective was that the visitors were his guests. And it was, most of the time, a great place to be; several of us made literally thousands of posts there.
For building and maintaining that site, creating a space where diverse people with one somewhat goofy common interest could get to know each other and experience one of life's great joys and tribulations--baseball fandom--together, we'll always be grateful. And for pushing so many of us to think more vigorously, to accept and embrace our responsibilities to each other and to the world, we'll always admire him, and miss him.
I'm not yet aware of any information about sending condolences or otherwise honoring Dave Snyder. When we hear anything, we'll post it here.
Rest in peace, Dave.