The father of the Jazz head coach was a “sports icon” in Mercer Island. SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Gary Snyder, the father of Utah Jazz head coach Quin Snyder passed away from cancer at the age of 80.. Snyder passed away on October 24 and it was first reported by the Mercer Island Reporter.. Gary Snyder, in full Gary Sherman Snyder, (born May 8, 1930, San Francisco, California, U.S.), American poet early identified with the Beat movement and, from the late 1960s, an important spokesman for the concerns of communal living and ecological activism. Gary Snyder, local baseball standout and father of Utah Jazz coach Quin Snyder, died Thursday of cancer age 80. Discordian works include a number of books, not all of which actually exist.Among those that have been published are Principia Discordia, first published in 1965 (which includes portions of The Honest Book of Truth); and The Illuminatus! Snyder … Trilogy, which had its first volume published in 1975.