Dr. Daniel Snydacker, 90, a Chicago ophthalmologist for nearly 50 years and an amateur botanist who in his retirement specialized in preserving tall grass prairies, died of a heart attack Saturday, Feb. 10, in his Lake Forest home. A formal man who was easily stirred by strong emotions, he was a perfectionist in his professional and private life, an impeccable dresser, and one who expected those with whom he conversed to be well-informed and lucid. “Things were done with great precision–they had to be in the operating room, and he carried that into his daily life,” said his son, Daniel Jr. “There was something very Victorian about him.” Dr. Snydacker preferred private practice and teaching medical interns at universities to administrative roles in hospitals or academic departments. The Kenilworth native graduated from New Trier High School in 1928 and from the University of Wisconsin in 1931. He received his medical degree in 1935 from Northwestern University Medical School, and after further study in Austria, became the second generation of his family to specialize in ophthalmology. He worked in private practice and on the staff of the Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary at the University of Illinois at Chicago until joining the Army during World War II and serving in field hospitals across the Pacific. He returned to Chicago and private practice in 1946, also serving as an attending physician at Michael Reese Hospital. He joined the University of Chicago medical faculty in the late 1950s and served at times as president of the Chicago Ophthalmological Society and as director of the Lighthouse for the Blind. He retired from ophthalmology in 1984 when he began to suffer from the early signs of macular degeneration. During his retirement, he studied and conserved tall grass prairies, bringing family members and acquaintances on his numerous trips through north suburban prairies. In four or five of them, Dr. Snydacker could tromp directly across the fields to individual plants as though picking his car from a crowded parking lot. He also helped identify and catalog prairie plants as a volunteer at the Field Museum in Chicago. In addition to his son, he is survived by his wife, Betty; a son, Harry; a daughter, Ruth Bregar; and 10 grandchildren. A memorial service will be from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Chicago Botanic Garden, 1000 Lake Cook Rd., Glencoe.
