[3] He graduated from Tufts University in 1955 and served in the United States Army, receiving an honorable discharge in 1956.
[4] Snyder began working at Simon & Schuster in 1960, serving as President from 1975 to 1986, CEO from 1978 to 1994, and Chairman from 1986 to 1994.
From 1975 to 1994, Simon & Schuster went from US$40 million to US$2 billion in annual revenue and became the largest book publisher in the world, home to notable authors including Bob Woodward, Graham Greene, Larry McMurtry, Mary Higgins Clark, Philip Roth, Joan Didion, Joseph Heller, Ian McEwen, Mario Puzo, Stephen Ambrose, Thomas Keneally, Walter Isaacson, and David McCullough.
In 2007, Snyder sued Edgar Bronfman Jr. over an alleged oral joint venture between the two involving the acquisition of Warner Music Group.
Fried of the New York State Supreme Court dismissed 4 of the 6 charges in 2008, allowing the rest to go forward.
The Richard E. Snyder President's Lecture Series at Tufts University was endowed by him in 2004 to invigorate the intellectual environment on campus by providing a forum for the presentation of provocative points of view on matters of global importance.