Chuck Kennedy/MCT Former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow takes questions from reporters during his second on-camera news briefing in May 2006.

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RANCHO RESORT
MAINTANANCE POSITION

Landing a job as political cartoonist was a dream. Tony Snow understood such dreams.

The former White House press secretary, Fox News Channel pundit and syndicated columnist, whom the Star published, died Saturday in Washington, D.C. He was 53.

The Virginian Pilot was a great newspaper, but Tony wanted to be more than an editorial writer. When he was offered the title of editorial page editor at the much smaller Daily Press of Newport News, he gleefully jumped across the bay to the lesser paper.

I was a features-section page designer at the Pilot in 1982. Tony liked my unpublished political cartoons, which I was always happy to share with colleagues. We were the same age.

Weeks later, out of the blue, Tony called me. His new boss at the Daily Press granted him the freedom to hire a cartoonist. At the Chamberlin Hotel we met in secret and schemed over beers. We shook hands. The land of Pat Robertson and Williamsburg had acquired a satirist. My dream had come true.

This conservative philosophy scholar invited a liberal cartoonist to join his diverse crew that resembled the Breakfast Club in plaid. Educated Tony had the cool manner of a mischievous mastermind and we were his ink slingers, waving our pens like scabbards, out to change the world.

A stable of quarreling thinkers, we were so opinionated it's remarkable we didn't hate each other. Just the opposite. And tall Tony was our amused ringmaster, overseeing pages that must have appeared schizophrenic.

"Our republic will survive our small differences," he'd say. To this day I use his line.

Thanks to Tony's good humor, I was nearly fired the same week I signed on. A bank had changed its name to "Sovran" at great expense. Tony found this amusing, wrote about it and suggested a cartoon.

The white-haired publisher kicked open Tony's door the next day, demanding to know if we thought it was funny that a bank had canceled thousands of dollars in advertising because a pair of fools thought Sovran sounded like the name of a snake oil that would alleviate constipation.

An accompanying map identifying Sovran as a lesser known Soviet republic by some punk named Fitz-whatever didn't help. Tony's attentive charm defused the situation. His dream and mine, chastened and wiser, survived.

Driving with Tony to Richmond, Va., to visit the Legislature was Gonzo time. We'd joke, gossip and debate everything along the way: Guns, Reagan and the latest goofball lawmaker in the headlines. Gracious Tony was as certain of his conservative views as I was certain of mine. And always ready to laugh with a fellow muckraker.

Hired by The Detroit News in 1984, Tony rocketed away into higher conservative orbits. I'm sure I drew a going away card that read "Goodbye and good luck, Tony." I should have added, "and thanks for giving me my start." I eventually returned to Tucson, a seasoned cartoonist.

I lost touch with Tony decades ago. A life of public service would leave him little time for such as me. I'd see his name on the masthead of the Washington Times or read about a new White House speechwriter and wish him well. And then he became White House Press Secretary Tony Snow. The same brilliant, maddening and endearing Tony, just a little gray.

A cancer survivor myself, I was in awe of Tony's good-natured fight with the relentless beast. A few months ago, I heard his voice on talk radio. He was calm; reasoning with a caller.

That sugary soothing voice took me back 20 years. To a tree-lined road south of Richmond. To the time when I felt like a kid on a college road trip with the really cool brainy guy. The one who could make you laugh. The one who was going to change the world.