L. Glen Snarr, former chief of News board, dies at 87

L. Glen Snarr, who served on the board of directors of the Deseret News Publishing Co. for 29 years, including nine years as its chairman, passed away Monday. He was 87.

Mr. Snarr had also been chairman of the board and chief executive officer for Utah's largest advertising and public relations firm.

"I've known Glen Snarr from the first day I was employed at the Deseret News in 1948," said Thomas S. Monson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "He was the city editor when I started work for the paper. At the newspaper he was known for his versatility. Any story, large or small, Glen gave it his best. He was also the top advertising executive in the country.

"Glen was not outspoken, but when he did speak everyone listened. He played a key role in moving the Deseret News to morning publication. He was universally liked by colleagues and competitors alike," said President Monson.

"I've known Glen Snarr for 40 years," said Ellis R. Ivory, who succeeded Mr. Snarr as chairman of the board of the Deseret News Publishing Co. "I saw him build Evans Advertising into one of the country's most respected agencies. But more recently I had the great privilege of sitting at his side as he led the Deseret News Publishing Co. through nine challenging years.

"Glen was loved and admired by everyone he worked with," Ivory said.

"Glen was a very good partner and a dear friend," said Dean Singleton, publisher of the Salt Lake Tribune and CEO of MediaNews Group. "We fought many important battles together, and I've never in adversity felt closer to anyone than I did to Glen during the difficult days after we bought the Tribune.

"Glen had a single vision for the Deseret News. He knew that for the paper to survive it must go morning. And he dedicated himself to accomplishing that. Now it is a growing newspaper, when it could have been a shrinking paper," Singleton said.

As chairman of the Deseret News board, Mr. Snarr oversaw the hiring of a Pulitzer Prize-winning editor, John Hughes, who was previously editor of the Christian Science Monitor. Mr. Snarr also presided over the paper's transition to morning publication.

"(He) never gets very far away from a typewriter," Arnold Irvine wrote about Mr. Snarr in a 1975 Deseret News story. "It's his instrument, his tool, his weapon. In school, he studied it and learned how to work with it. Out of school, he helped fight World War II with it."

In fact, an injured leg started his writing career. While he was a Boy Scout at a Payson Canyon camp, a leg injury temporarily immobilized him and his leaders put him to work on the camp newspaper. It was then that he knew he loved writing and that he wanted to become a newspaperman.