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7A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2016 Snow: ‘Every small town relies on people like Hal Snow’ Continued from Page 1A “It’s pretty much an end of an era for the longest running law firm in the area,” Hen- ningsgaard said. “But it’s a real sad day for all the lawyers who worked with Hal and knew him. He was a real gentleman and a fine attorney.” Since 1970, Snow was the city attorney of Warrenton. “Hal was such a great sup- port to the city of Warren- ton — really loved the city of Warrenton,” Linda Engbret- son, Warrenton’s city manager, said. “He was a great mentor and support to me.” Warrenton Mayor Mark Kujala, who was “shocked and saddened” to hear the news, said, “Our hearts are very heavy right now.” Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian The crew at Snow & Snow in Astoria. Jeanyse and Hal Snow are seated. Hal Snow died Thursday at 75. Community builder Snow, Kujala said, left his handprint on many institu- tions on the North Coast, and his influence is felt through- out the region. Snow’s friends describe him as a private, humble man who, along with his family, quietly supported beloved organizations such as the Liberty Theater, the Astoria Riverfront Trolley, the Friends of the Astoria Column and the Columbia River Maritime Museum. “Hal helped such a wide range of people and activi- ties in Astoria,” former Astoria Mayor Willis Van Dusen said. Steve Forrester, The Daily Astorian’s former editor and publisher who sits on the Lib- erty’s board of directors, said, “When we set out to restore the Liberty Theater, we were really in uncharted waters, and Hal was a very clear head through all of it, and quite essential to making it happen.” Snow, a major donor to local athletic programs, was the prime mover in the creation of the Lower Columbia Youth Soccer Association and the Warrenton soccer fields. He also served on the Ore- gon Community Founda- tion board, including a stint as president, and helped to bring grants and other charitable funds into Clatsop County. “Every small town relies on people like Hal Snow. With common sense, intelligence, energy and personal commit- ment, these people are essen- tial to community building,” Forrester said in an email. “In his central roles with the Lib- erty Theater’s restoration, the Astoria Column’s restoration and the creation of the youth soccer league, Hal greatly enlarged the civic furniture of Astoria and the Columbia-Pa- cific region.” Daryl Birney, Snow’s long- time friend, said Snow, who preferred to eschew the lime- light, “did more for the com- munity, probably, than the community knows about.” Jordan Schnitzer, a Port- land philanthropist and presi- dent of the Friends of the Asto- ria Column board who worked with Hal for more than 30 years, said, “In a generation where, today, everyone is so me-oriented, he was always we-oriented.” ‘The loss is huge’ Because of Snow’s deep knowledge of the law and local matters, his colleagues in municipal government sought him not just for his legal coun- sel but for his wisdom, accord- ing to Gil Gramson, a former Warrenton city manager and city commissioner. “We had so much confi- dence in his advice,” Gramson said. Snow, an Astoria High School and University of Ore- gon law school graduate, and his wife specialized in han- dling wills, trusts, real estate and land use planning. “‘Hal and Jeanyse’ … When you said one, you might as well include the other, because they were a team,” Gramson said. A devoted “Duck” who loved his family and cared for his employees, Snow never forgot his roots, and never for- got his friends. “Rarely in life does one meet someone who just exem- plifies integrity, honesty, charm, incredible intelligence, packaged with a personality who made everyone else feel important,” Schnitzer said. “He, in my opinion, just over- flowed with the kind of human qualities that I know I wished I could have had more of, and I think everyone that met him felt the same way. He was prin- cipled, thoughtful, and always broke into the most effusive grin and smile when something was funny. I’ve never met any- one who hasn’t put him on a pedestal. “I think, for all of us who knew him and were close to him … the loss is huge. He is irreplaceable,” Schnitzer con- tinued. “But at least we were all blessed with having known and worked with him for many years, and therefore he will live on forever, not just in his role of helping preserve and main- tain the Column but in our hearts and minds. I know that, for me, there will never be a time when I go up to the Col- umn that I won’t think about his guiding hand helping us through one issue after another over the last 28 years.” Snow, Van Dusen said, “will be missed for a long time. Astoria is a better town because of Hal Snow.” Warr: Final meeting is tonight Continued from Page 1A no-nonsense believer in lim- ited city government, a check on the budget and political reach of City Hall. The owner of Astoria Granite Works has represented the east side with a gruff sensibility for three terms and chose not to run for re-election in November. Warr — whose last coun- cil meeting is tonight — has advised the City Council not to stray too far from the city’s mission to provide basic ser- vices such as police, fire, roads, water and sewer. He sees the council as policy- makers who set direction, but do not manage the day-to-day operation of the city. “Our hearts can bleed as badly as they can bleed,” Warr said, “but it’s still not our role.” When the city does stray, he believes, it should be on something big. One of Warr’s proud- est achievements is work- ing with former Mayor Willis Van Dusen to broker an under- standing between Columbia Memorial Hospital and Park Medical Center that helped pave the way for a partnership with Oregon Health & Science University. Warr was also part of Van Dusen’s team on the deal between the city, the hospital, Recology Western Oregon and the school district that trans- formed the former landfill into CMH Field, a project that has earned national attention. Warr was a champion of the 17th Street Dock and the expansion of Maritime Memorial Park. “Our primary roles are to provide to the citizens what they can’t provide for them- selves,” he said. Fiscal conservative Mayor Arline LaMear, who has served with Warr since she was elected to the City Council in 2008, said Warr was always well-pre- pared and pointed in his con- tributions. “He always let you know his opinion,” the mayor said. “He wasn’t afraid to state those opinions at all. But he also respected others.” Warr developed an exper- tise in transportation issues — he was an advocate for an elu- sive Astoria highway bypass — and was the city’s repre- sentative on the Columbia-Pa- cific Economic Development District, known as Col-Pac, which works to diversify and strengthen northwest Ore- gon’s economy. On the City Council, Warr was a fiscal conservative. “If we came up with proj- ects and so forth, he immedi- ately wanted to know, ‘Well, how are we going to pay for those?’” LaMear said. “He kept us grounded so that we weren’t taking on some proj- ects that the city wasn’t really able to afford.” In January, LeMear will take over the role as the coun- cil’s longest-serving mem- ber, the last remnant of Van Dusen’s three decades of lead- ership. “We’ve lost so much institutional memory when we lost Willis. And he had 30 years of experience. And then Russ,” she said. “It’s hard when you do that.” Good old boys Van Dusen, the mayor for 24 years before he decided against re-election in 2014, was a dominant figure at City Hall who described his network of allies as a team. Detractors, though, derided his leadership as a good old boy’s club resistant to change. Former City Councilor Drew Herzig portrayed the City Council as “lockstep” under Van Dusen and, after Van Dusen’s departure, rou- tinely scrapped with Warr in what often became Monday night political theater at City Hall. Warr was sensitive to the good old boy label a few years ago — he once told The Daily Astorian that it never existed — but he has a more benign view today. Warr said Van Dusen has been a friend for three decades. The former mayor, he said, had a vision and the ability to make things happen for Astoria. “I’m proud to be part of the good old boy network because we got some really good things done,” Warr said. Skip Hauke, the executive director of the Astoria-Warren- ton Chamber of Commerce, said Warr has been invaluable on the City Council. “He can think of every issue from all sides. And I think he does before he makes a decision,” Hauke said. “Russ never went to a council meet- ing with an agenda in mind. And he’s just been an excel- lent councilor, just as steady as a rock.” Hauke, like Van Dusen, comes from a family with deep roots in Astoria. Long- time friendships and personal relationships do influence business and political deci- sions, but are not the exclusive avenues to power, as Herzig — who moved to Astoria from California in 2009 — showed. “He knows a lot of peo- ple and he’s been involved for a long time,” Hauke said of Warr, who also spent 12 years on the Astoria School Board and served on the cham- ber’s board. “So I guess if that makes him a member of the old boy’s group, I guess maybe he is. But so am I and so are a lot of other people that have lived in this town for so many years and have been involved in business and have been involved in the town. “I don’t think it’s ever been a detriment to him. He knows the town and he loves the town.” Policymakers One of Warr’s concerns is Astoria’s inability to main- tain all of the services it prom- ises, especially in the Parks and Recreation Department, and he has been a critic of the spotty maintenance at Ocean View Cemetery, the city-run burial plots in Warrenton. While Warr said he does not have many regrets on the policy front, he does empa- thize with his Uppertown neighbors who were bom- barded over the years by fans of “The Goonies,” the 1985 cult classic. “I don’t think that anyone could have predicted what was going to happen there,” said Warr, who lives near the Goonies’ house and has often had to field complaints from angry neighbors who wanted the city to take action. Warr said the surges in visi- tors, especially around the big- ger movie anniversary years, had a “whale of an impact on the city. And I wished that could have solved itself a little easier than what’s happened.” Tourism dollars often came at the expense of Uppertown. “It brought a lot of dollars into the community,” he said. “And so when tourism is such a big thing on the city’s agenda; and you’re allowing a neighborhood to be somewhat compromised. “So are you working for the betterment of most of the community? Are you solv- ing a problem for a small part of the community?” he asked. “That’s a tough way to (choose) … And I don’t think there’s clearly a good answer.” Warr’s time at City Hall is not the only era coming to an end. He said he is in negotia- tions to sell Astoria Granite Works. He took over the busi- ness in 1994 after a career with Sears, Roebuck & Co. Going forward, Warr urged the City Council to focus more on the big picture and find a better way to talk with one another outside the formality of council meetings. “If I have a criticism of the council, it’s paying way too much time and effort on things that really aren’t going to materially change anything,” he said. “The one thing that I really suggest that the council does is keep a dialogue going between all of the councilors.” Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian Duane Larson becomes emotional speaking on behalf of his family during the funeral of his father, Don Larson, the former Seaside mayor on Friday at North Coast Family Fellowship in Seaside. Larson: Former mayor had special relationship with children, family Continued from Page 1A faith played in his final year. “‘I don’t want to think about heaven,’” Larson told Rydman. “‘I’ve got too many things on my to-do list.’” Larson loved his role as mayor, Rydman said Friday. “Five years before his retire- ment, he said ‘I’m going to retire in four years and seven months. Then I’m going to move to Seaside and become mayor.” Larson’s special relation- ship with children and family was stressed by speakers. “His grandchildren were his greatest sense of joy for his last 25 years,” Rydman said. “Don was recently honored by the city when they renamed the Seaside Library the Donald E. Larson building. He was really touched by the recognition and the family was touched that he was given the honor while still alive.” At North Coast Fam- ily Fellowship, Larson was remembered for his work with AWANA — an acro- nym for the scriptural phrase “approved workers are not ashamed” — a weekly church program. Larson worked with kids every Wednesday night, a role he continued even while serving in city office. “Those kids became so important to him,” Pastor Dan Dunn said. “He became our commander. I would stand by and watch by the doorway where all the kids were, he’d be surrounded by these kids and he would have them pray, and he would pray with them. I was watching this and thought, ‘How many mayors are in tune with the kids of their commu- nity as this? And loved and care about them as fiercely as he did?’” ‘His grandchildren were his greatest sense of joy for his last 25 years.’ Pastor Larry Rydman One of those AWANA alumna, Kayla Vowels, sang “God Bless America.” Before his death, Larson asked that all remembrances be given to YUGO Minis- tries toward providing a house for a deserving family in the Ensenada, Mexico area. Larson was born in Port- land to Elmer and Dena Larson on March 14, 1936, and has a younger brother Jim. He is sur- vived by his wife of 55 years, Lois; David Larson, Kristin Larson and Nicholas Clayton; Lorraine and Bill TenHaken and Kirsten and Josh Riedel, Rebecca and Brandon Wine- brenner, and Erika and Alex Sneath; Duane and Elizabeth Larson and Rachel, Cameron and Paige. Larson retired as sergeant major, the highest rank for an enlisted person. T HE D AILY A STORIAN WILL BE CLOSED MONDAY DECEMBER 26 TH Your newspaper will be delivered as usual Happy Holidays!
