Obituary of Lois M. Snook

Lois M. Snook, born September 28, 1929 in Enola, PA, Lois Marilyn Snook exemplified "women's empowerment" long before the term entered wide usage. From earliest childhood Lois' mother, Arna Kerstetter was determined that her older daughter would grow up with every opportunity to reach her full potential. Lois was the first member of her family to attend college at Gettysburg, where she met her future husband, Lee Snook. Lois often said she fell in love with Lee because of their deep conversations and they married on December 27, 1952. Together they developed a lifelong appetite for travel and visited every continent except Antarctica. They were seldom separated during their nearly seven decades of marriage. Lois' career was long and varied and began with navigating the duties of a Lutheran pastor's wife while raising four children in Pennsylvania. In 1960, the family moved to Ithaca, NY where Lois worked for Cornell University Publications editing course catalogs while attending graduate classes at Cornell. In 1970, the family moved again to St. Paul where she worked as an editor of Event Magazine. She then founded Working Opportunities for Women, a first-of-its kind nonprofit organization that met the mid-life needs of women entering the workforce for the first time, an immediate success which continues to this day. During the 1980s, Lois and Lee lived and worked in Zimbabwe for three years where Lois became an expert in African literature and Shona stone sculpture and also facilitated study tours for Luther Seminary students and faculty. In 2000, Lois wrote a moving memoire, Crossing Rivers, Crossing Oceans, that readers have universally loved and praised. Lois was a warm and gracious woman with deep affection for her family and passionately defended beliefs. Lois and Lee's children gave them 12 grandchildren born in Japan, Canada, Australia, and several countries in Africa, as well as Illinois and Massachusetts. Throughout her life, Lois followed her Christian calling to love others and to promote justice for the oppressed. Lois Marilyn Snook embodied Christian love and emancipation on a shining life's journey with Lee all over God's green earth, touching innumerable people along the way. Lois lost one granddaughter, Miriam, and is survived by her loving husband Lee, children Stephen (Rosine), David (Susann), Emily (John) and Beth (Ralph), their 11 grandchildren, Jeffrey, Jessica, Angela, Sarah, Jason, Katherine, Mark, Rebecca, Christopher, Elizabeth, and Gabriella, and a great-granddaughter, Lily.