Ed Snider To Receive 2005 Ellis Island Medal Of Honor

Comcast-Spectacor Chairman Ed Snider will be among this year’s recipients of the highly coveted and distinguished Ellis Island Medals of Honor presented by The National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations (NECO). The presentation of the medal highlights the gala reception and patriotic pageantry on Ellis Island on Saturday, May 14, which concludes with a spectacular fireworks display in New York Harbor.

Snider, the son of a Russian immigrant, is known as much for his entrepreneurial success as for his unselfish and giving nature and acts of philanthropy, which include his involvement with a number of community and charitable organizations. He joins more than 1,000 American citizens, including George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Muhammad Ali, Rosa Parks, Elie Wiesel, Frank Sinatra, and others, who have received Ellis Island Medals of Honor.

Snider is Chairman of one of the most successful sports and entertainment firms in the United States, Comcast-Spectacor. The Philadelphia-based company owns and operates the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association, the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League, the Philadelphia Phantoms of the American Hockey League, the arenas in which these teams play, three minor league baseball affiliates of the Baltimore Orioles and Flyers Skate Zone, a series of community ice skating and hockey rinks throughout the Greater Philadelphia Region. Additionally, his company operates Global Spectrum, the fastest growing firm in the public assembly management field, Ovations Food Services, a food and beverage concessionaire and caterer, and New Era Tickets, a full-service ticketing company.

Joining Snider in the 2005 class of Ellis Island Medal of Honor recipients are actor, director and producer Penny Marshall; Seeds of Peace President Aaron David Miller; U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao; NASA Scientist Dr. Firouz Michael Naderi; football legend, business leader and broadcaster Nick Buoniconti; and American Red Cross Chairman Bonnie McElveen-Hunter.

The Ellis Island Medals of Honor are presented to Americans of diverse origins for their outstanding contributions to their own ethnic groups and to American society. Honorees typically include U.S. Presidents, Nobel Prize winners, leaders of industry, and gifted artists, performers, and athletes. Each receives a specially crafted Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

This past year, the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate have unanimously passed resolutions sanctioning the NECO and the Ellis Island Medals of Honor. This recognition inspires NECO to work anew for a better world through the advancement, protection, and encouragement of all of America's ethnic groups, religions, and races.

NECO is the largest organization of its kind in the U.S., serving as an umbrella group for more than 200 ethnic organizations. Its mandate is to preserve ethnic diversity; promote ethnic and religious equality, tolerance and harmony; and to combat injustice, hatred, and bigotry. Ellis Island Medal of Honor recipients are selected each year through a national nomination process. Screening committees from NECO’s member organizations select the final nominees, who are then considered by the Board of Directors.

Snider first emerged as a leader in Philadelphia’s sports business in l966 when he founded the Flyers. He was the driving force behind the building of the Spectrum and assumed control of the arena in l971. In 1974, Snider created Spectacor as a management company to oversee the Flyers and the Spectrum. Over the next 20 years, Spectacor grew to be a national force in sports and entertainment. Under Snider’s guidance, Spectacor started or acquired nearly a dozen businesses. Many of these enterprises were sold at a time when each was the industry leader in its field.

Snider is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame, the Flyers Hall of Fame, the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame and the Philadelphia Jewish Hall of Fame. He is a recipient of the Lester Patrick Award for outstanding service to hockey in the United States.

In February of 2001, Snider received Temple University’s first annual sports leadership award presented by the Fox School of Business and Management. In May 1999, Philadelphia Daily News readers selected him as Philly’s greatest mover and shaker of the millennium in mail-in and online balloting. In December 1999, he received the Anti-Defamation League’s prestigious Americanism Award. In l985, Snider received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from MCP Hahnemann University and in May of 1999, he received the same from Thomas Jefferson Hospital. He is also a Benefactor and Advisory Board Member of the Sol C. Snider Entrepreneurial Center of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Other Board memberships include the Isadore Brodsky Institute for Cancer and Blood Diseases, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, National Foundation for Celiac Awareness, The Objectivist Center, the Simon Wisenthal Center, the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia and the Middle East Forum.

Snider and his wife, Christine, reside in suburban Philadelphia. His children include daughters, Lindy, Tina, and Sarena and sons, Craig, Jay and Samuel, as well as 14 grandchildren.