CALGARY -- Kelsie Snow delivered a moving eulogy during a memorial service for husband Chris Snow, the Calgary Flames’ vice president of hockey operations and assistant general manager who died Sept. 30 at the age of 42 following a long battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Kelsie was the last of four speakers at St. Michael Catholic Community on Thursday, which drew the entire Flames organization, along with hockey and media personalities across North America.
“I don’t think wives are supposed to do this, but Chris, of course, asked me to,” Kelsie began. “I met Chris 18 years ago and I have loved him for half of my life. Walking forward without him by my side feels untenable, yet everywhere I go and everything I do, I hear Chris’ voice and I know what he would be doing.
“I experienced close-up for the last 18 years that Chris never wasted a minute; he was so sure of who he was, what he believed in and who he loved every single day for the last 18 years. I have felt so very lucky of that, who he was, most of all [he] was my best friend and the father of our children and who he believed in was me, Cohen and Willa, and who he loved was our family.”
Snow is survived by Kelsie, children Cohen, 11, and Willa, 8, along with sister Colleen. Kelsie and Snow met working together as sports reporters at the Boston Globe in 2005.
“The summer I met Chris was the best one of my life,” Kelsie said. “My days were filled with work and writing and learning from some of the greatest in the business.”
Colleen Snow also spoke eloquently about her older brother and spending summers at a lake in New Hampshire.
“Chris was only 20 months older than me,” Colleen said. “When I reflect on the times we were closest, we were young children, and then again as adults raising children of our own.”
A former sports reporter, Snow began his writing career at NHL.com and went on to cover the Boston Red Sox for the Boston Globe, and the Minnesota Wild for the Star Tribune.
Prior to joining the Flames in a management role, he worked as director of hockey operations for the Wild from 2006-10. Snow was hired by the Flames as director of hockey analysis in 2011 and was promoted to assistant general manager Sept. 26, 2019.
“Chris’s professional love was always hockey and he always wanted to be involved in hockey,” said former Flames GM Brad Treliving, now GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs. “You have to think back to 2010 and 2011, and that just didn’t happen. There wasn’t a lot of people that were going from sports writing as a team beat writer going into a front office.”
Snow, who was born in Boston on Aug. 11, 1981, was diagnosed with ALS in June 2019. He lost his father, two uncles and a cousin to ALS, a progressive neurodegenerative disease affecting nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.
“Of friends, Chris had many, but it was the depth and the durability of friendships with us that made him so remarkable,” close friend Dave Levinthal said. “What Chris shared with us was real and radical, and it’s born out of an innate desire to find the very best among the people in his life.”
Among those in attendance at the memorial included former Flames president of hockey operations Brian Burke, Hockey Hall of Famer Lanny McDonald, former Calgary captain Jarome Iginla and former Wild GM Doug Risebrough, who gave Snow his first front-office job.
“’Snowy’ knew his background in hockey was different than anybody else; he didn’t play, so he had to build his credibility,” Treliving said. “He would back up his positions and recommendations with facts and videos, with stuff you could see and you could touch. … Hockey people would say, ‘You know what you’re doing.’
“He brought us ideas that were new, were innovative and made us better.”
