GUILDERLAND — A draftsman and designer, Luther K. Snyder was exacting and precise.

“He was very detailed in everything he did,” said his daughter, Carol Adriance. She also said, “He loved his family. His family was his life, above everything else.”

Mr. Snyder, known to his friends and family as “Lute,” died on Friday, March 25, 2016, after a long illness in Carolina Shores, North Carolina where he had lived. He was 87.

He was born in Guilderland on May 13, 1928, the son of the late Charles and Anna Snyder. His mother stayed home to raise him and his sister, the late Doris Tucker. His father was a designer for General Electric.

Mr. Snyder fell in love in high school, with Solveig Wennerstrom.“We were engaged before we graduated,” said Mrs. Snyder. “He was attracted to me. And he was driving a car. What more do you want?” she quipped.

They married on Oct. 1, 1950. Their union lasted 65 years, ending only with his death.

The couple started building a house on Gardner Road.  “I was going to nursing school. We borrowed money to build,” Mrs. Snyder recalled. Then Mr. Snyder was drafted into the Army. “We closed up the house so it would stand until he got home,” she recalled.

He served in the 8047th Army unit in Osaka, Japan from 1951 to 1953, attaining the rank of corporal in the Signal Corps. “He took messages from Korea and sent them to Washington or wherever,” said Mrs. Snyder.

Mr. Snyder was a member of the American Legion Post 503 and a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 7288. “He liked to be with people that understood that,” Mrs. Snyder said of being in service.

When he returned home from Japan, the house was still standing. The Snyders raised their three daughters there, moving to the Carolinas in 1988.

“He was a good father; he always looked out for his girls,” said Mrs. Snyder. “When the boys started coming, he was very strict.”

“Lute was loved and respected by countless friends and family,” his family wrote in a tribute. “He was funny; he was kind,” said his wife. “He had friends through work, through church, through school, and the neighbors,” said Mrs. Snyder.

She also said, “He loved to play games.” As their children were growing up, the couple socialized by having friends over to their house to play cards. “That way, I could put my children to bed; we didn’t have a babysitter,” said Mrs. Snyder.

Mr. Snyder retired from Niagara Mohawk Power Corp (now National Grid) in 1988 with 40 years of service in the engineering department.

The couple then moved to the Carolinas. “We had always lived in the mountains. We wanted to be near the ocean,” said Mrs. Snyder. Mr. Snyder drew up plans for their new home. His mother moved in with them. “She had one side of the house, so she could be independent. We had the other. We ate together,” said Mrs. Snyder.

Mr. Snyder was a member of the King of Glory Lutheran Church in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. “He went to church every Sunday,” said his wife. When he lived on Gardner Road, he attended St. John’s Lutheran Church in Altamont after St. Mark’s in Guilderland Center closed.

At the King of Glory Lutheran Church, Mr. Snyder was a member of a team to help with rebuilding homes after storms ravaged them.

“When he was working, he couldn’t do that,” said his wife of the volunteer work he enjoyed.

Mr. Snyder also busied himself with woodworking. “He loved his machines,” said his wife. “He made so many wooden things from morning to night — bears, and baskets, and birdhouses — you name it.”

***

Luther K. Snyder is survived by his wife, Solveig Snyder; his daughters, Carol Adriance and her husband, Andy, and Diane Disser; six grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren.

His daughter Juanita Manss died before him. Her husband, Chris Manns, survives, as does his wife, Linda.

A celebration of life memorial service will be held in the Albany area at a later date, at which time his ashes will be placed in Prospect Hill Cemetery.

Memorial contributions may be made to King of Glory Lutheran Church, 805 Eleventh Ave., North Myrtle Beach, SC 29582.

— Melissa Hale-Spencer