After brief stints as teachers, in 1935 Snell joined the staff of The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor on beautiful Mount Desert Island by the coast of Maine and he remained there for the entire balance of his long career. In Bar Harbor, he met and married Rhoda Carson. Together they had three sons, Thomas, Roy, and Peter. In his leisure time, Snell enjoyed skiing, a passion he developed during his years at Dartmouth, as well as tennis.