Ed Snider, the founder of the Philadelphia Flyers who was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011, passed away Monday morning.

Snider's contribution to the success of hockey in Philadelphia and the Atlantic region of the United States is immeasurable. In 1966, the founder and owner of the Philadelphia Flyers made a successful bid for the team when the NHL made its first expansion, and has since turned the organization into one of the most successful franchises in the league. His commitment to advancing the game at the amateur level is evidenced in many ways, including in 2005 when he founded the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation to provide unprivileged children in the Philadelphia area with an opportunity to learn to play hockey at local rinks. In 2008, the Snider Hockey Foundation rescued three of the five Philadelphia inner-city ice-skating rinks that had been targeted for closure by funding and operating them for the city. The Foundation now funds and administers programming in all five city rinks.

Snider, a native of Washington, D.C., was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1985.