Vivian Snow was born on November 13, 1889, in St. George, Utah. He was baptized a member of the LDS Church on November 27, 1897. He later attended LDS Business College and became an accomplished cornet player. He had a strong interest in music, and participated in several bands and orchestras in the Salt Lake City area. He went on an LDS mission to New York and when he returned he accepted employment with the George Nielson Wholesale heating and supply company for three years. Soon after the beginning of World War I, he enlisted in the Army National Guard band. While at an Army fundraiser in Richfield, Snow met his future wife, Loree Forsyth. He was discharged in 1918, after touring in Europe, and married June 25, 1919 in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. He was employed with the Portland Cement Company, where he remained for 41 years until his retirement in 1961. He had three children: Emma Elizabeth Montague, Marilyn Bray, and Doug Snow, who later became a well-known Utah artist. The "saddest day of his life" was in 1956 when his wife discovered she had leukemia. She died in May of that year. Snow remarried on April 24, 1959, to Vera Robinson Schettler, with whom he remained until his death in 1980.