July 2016 - Ken Shapiro (center) and Mark Schneer (right) with Sparky Lyle, former relief pitcher for the New York Yankees, at a Somerset, NJ Patriots game.
October 31, 2017
He may have served you a cup of coffee or a glass of water when you arrived for a meeting, you may have spoken with him to confirm an appointment, or you may have received one of the many tax return packages that he assembled each tax season. Although he liked keeping a low profile, each of you probably had some form of contact with him over the years.
Unfortunately, it is with extreme sadness that we announce that Mark Schneer passed away on Thursday, October 26, 2017 after a short period of hospitalization.
Mark had quietly, bravely, and confidently waged a fight against an aggressive form of prostate cancer for the last two years. Throughout his illness, he rarely missed a day of work and he was never without a positive attitude or a kind word for all who came into his office. He often told me how much he enjoyed coming to work, due to the diversity of people he met and the variety of projects that he assisted in working on.
Mark was humble, devoted and kind, yet never wanted to be in the limelight. He was content to play the key support role, asking almost nothing in return other than one’s friendship. Over the years, Mark became an integral and valued member of our team here in the office and a dear personal friend to each of us.
Mark was one of the friends I made at Rider College, and we stayed close throughout the 43 years that I have known him. Mark was a regular member of the bowling teams I was on, and my sidekick helping me to endure all of the NY Jet losses over these many years. Mark endured a lot of pain as a sports fan, being an avid NY Mets, Rangers, and Knicks fan, but he never stopped cheering for the teams he followed.
It was always easy being around each other. He was an ‘uncle’ to all three of my children, including proudly accepting the role of being godfather to my youngest son, Devon, and often joined me on the sidelines cheering for Devon as we watched his soccer games together.
Mark was also a devoted, loving and proud father and grandfather to his own family. He gleefully attended concerts or ballgames with his daughter, Dori, and cheered on his three grandchildren at their various competitions at every opportunity to do so.
Mark began working part time for our firm back in 2001, after completing a course learning how to prepare income tax returns. He was the owner of Arsenal Archives at that time, a document storage and retrieval business, but he was interested in learning more about the services we provided and wanted to help support the growth of my practice.
Mark ultimately sold his business to a larger entity, and worked full time for that firm providing customer support services. Even then he came into the office on Saturdays or holidays to lend a hand where needed. He enjoyed assisting in many ways - logging in the tax documents received from clients, scanning the workpapers, or packaging the returns for mailing back to each client after I had made the final review of the returns.
When Mark’s full time position was downsized, and SFSG was struggling getting reliable help for the front office, Mark agreed to step up and take on those responsibilities. Sitting just on the other side of the window to the office entrance, Mark was the first person I would see each day upon my arrival at the office, He would never complain about staying a bit late to help get a project out the door or to help me get ready for a meeting the next day.
Mark loved music and could “name that song” easily with a minimal number of chords. Staff members enjoyed sharing office space with Mark, singing along together to songs on the radio. They also found him to always be a good listener, bringing an optimistic outlook to what might be daily occurring on the news.
This is the first time that a current or former member of the firm has passed away, and we are finding it very hard to reconcile this loss. On both a personal and professional level, he will be dearly missed.
With a heavy heart,
