Tony Snow Dies - A Sad Day

Tony Snow, former Bush spokesman, has died at the age of 53. He had been suffering from colon cancer.

Robert Anthony “Tony” Snow (June 1, 1955 - July 12, 2008) was a former White House Press Secretary, the third for President George W. Bush after Scott McClellan and Ari Fleischer. Snow also worked for President George H. W. Bush as chief speech writer and Deputy Assistant of Media Affairs.

Between his two White House stints, Snow was a broadcaster and newspaper columnist. After years of regular guest-hosting for The Rush Limbaugh Show and providing news commentary for National Public Radio, he launched his own talk radio program, The Tony Snow Show, which went on to become nationally syndicated. He was also a regular personality on Fox News Channel since 1996, hosting Fox News Sunday, Weekend Live, and often substituting as host of The O’Reilly Factor.

On August 30, 2007, Snow announced that he would step down from his position on September 14, 2007. He said he had taken a major pay cut to become press secretary and that in light of his cancer he needed to earn more than his $168,000 salary to provide for his family. Snow’s deputy, Dana Perino, succeeded him as White House Press Secretary.

As of April 21, 2008, CNN announced that Tony Snow would join them as a conservative commentator.

Snow was born in Berea, Kentucky, and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. His father, Jim, taught social studies and was an assistant principal at Princeton High School in suburban Cincinnati, from which his son graduated. His mother was an inner-city nurse who died of colon cancer in 1973 when Snow was 17 years old. After graduating from Princeton High School in Sharonville, Ohio, Snow obtained his Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Davidson College in 1977. He did graduate work in philosophy and economics at the University of Chicago.

Snow began his newspaper career in 1979 in newspapers as an editorial writer for The Greensboro Record in North Carolina, next working as an editorial writer at The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Virginia (1981-82), editorial page editor of The Daily Press in Newport News (1982-84), deputy editorial page editor of The Detroit News (1984-87) and editorial page editor of The Washington Times (1987-91). Also, The Detroit News published his commentary from 1993 to 2000, and he was a Counterpoint Columnist for USA Today from 1994 to 2000.

Snow also wrote a syndicated column for Creators Syndicate between 1993 and 2000. As a nationally syndicated columnist, his commentaries appeared in more than 200 newspapers nationwide. Snow won numerous awards during his print career, including citations from the Virginia Press Association, the Detroit Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the American Society of Newspaper Editors, The Associated Press and Gannett.

He appeared on radio and television programs worldwide including The McLaughlin Group, The Macneil-Lehrer NewsHour, Face the Nation, Crossfire, and Good Morning America. Until 1994, Snow was the writer, correspondent and host of a PBS news special, The New Militant Center.

In 1991, Snow took a sabbatical from journalism to work in the White House for President George H. W. Bush, first as chief speech writer (Deputy Assistant to the President for Communications and Director of Speech writing) and later as Deputy Assistant to the President for Media Affairs (1992-1993).

From 1996 to 2003, he served as the first host of FOX News Sunday, a Sunday morning interview and roundtable program produced by Fox News, airing on affiliates of the Fox Broadcasting Company and later in the day on Fox News Channel.

Snow served as the primary guest host of Rush Limbaugh’s program from the mid-1990s on. He was also a frequent commentator on National Public Radio. Snow’s own Tony Snow Show on Fox News Radio premiered in late 2003. It ended when he became White House Press Secretary in April 2006.