From left to right, Nathaniel Snow, Chris Snow, unidentified person, Swift Barnes and unidentified person, in a photograph taken at an auction in 1974.

Chris Snow, antiques dealer, appraiser and auctioneer, died on February 2 after a long illness. The son of antiques dealer Kenneth Snow, Chris was born in 1942 in Boston and at the age 13, began a mail-order business of World War II memorabilia.

Snow was a founding and active member of the major Urban Renewal of Newburyport, Mass., which in the late-1960s saw the redirection of urban renewal in the country, with funds going to historic preservation instead of new building. He was also an active participant in the 1970s preservation and restoration of the post-1811 downtown buildings, which spurred investment by both businesspeople and homeowners. This confidence led to improved and restored properties, lifting the city out of its doldrums and sparking its renaissance. During this time, Snow purchased and restored a mixed use building at the bottom of Inn Street on Market Square.

During the 1960s to 1980s, Snow, his father and brother, Stephen Snow, had an antiques business in the historic debtors’ prison in Newburyport, called The Old Jail Antiques.

Between the 1970s and the 2000s, Snow was an active member and served on the board of the Museum of Old Newbury. He spent decades assembling a collection of about 2,000 photographs, glass plate negatives and photo albums chronicling more than 100 years of Newbury and Newburyport history; he donated this collection to the museum in the summer of 2014.

Snow is survived by his two children with his former wife Mardi Chalmers: Jess Snow of Boston, and Nathaniel Snow of Alameda, Calif.; his wife, Jean Snow of Newburyport; his stepson Shane Gillingham of Haverhill, Mass.; and his grandson Kai Pucci of New Hampshire.

A memorial service is being planned for the one-year anniversary of his passing.

—Submitted by the family