Former White House spokesman Tony Snow, who passed away from colon cancer at age 53 Saturday, has been remembered and mourned by those who knew him."I came to know Tony as a very smart and capable man," said President George W. Bush. "He had good values. He was an honest guy. He had a wonderful sense of humor. He loved to laugh. He loved his country and he loved his family."
Snow served both Bush and his father, George H.W. Bush, during their tenures in the White House. He was also a radio and television journalist and a Fox News commentator before and between his stints as spokesman.
His love of his job was evident when he announced his resignation from the job in Sept. 2007. "Everybody talks about what a horrible job it is to brief the press," he said. "I love these briefings!"
This job has been the most fun I have ever had, the most satisfying, fulfilling job," he said. "I am sorry I have got to leave it. But I have got to say it has been a real honor and pleasure to work with everybody in this room."
Shortly after his 2 a.m. death at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C., Vice President Dick Cheney told Fox News Sunday that Snow was a one-of-a-kind press secretary.
"He had this rare combination of intelligence, of commitment and loyalty to the President that he was working for, but also this great love of going out behind that podium and doing battle with what in effect were his former colleagues," Cheney said. "And it was this capacity that he had to be unfailingly polite, to maintain good humor under the most trying of circumstances, and do it, I thought, better and more effectively than anybody I have ever seen in that post."
Fox News' top anchor, Bill O'Reilly, anchored a live special edition of The O'Reilly Factor Saturday evening."At first we sparred on the air, but we shared a traditional point of view, and a sense of how absurd life can be," said O'Reilly. "He was one of President Bush's best hires."
Fox's Greta Van Susteren, who knew Snow since the '80s, told People that Snow made things fun on the job.
"On my first day, when I showed up at FOX, it was daunting being new at a job," she said. Tony came in, he dropped his body in the couch across from me. He acted like we had been friends forever. He welcomed me."
Current White House press secretary Dana Perino said that Snow was very dedicated to his job.
"His briefings were usually about 50 minutes – mine average about 20," he said. "He just had the gift for gab and he would hold them in there and make them understand what the president was trying to do."
But Perino said Snow's main concern was his family.
"His dedication and love for [them] was so admirable," she added. "I remember when his wife turned 50, he spent a week or so and he wanted to buy 50 gifts. Some were little, like a candy bar or something, but he had them all individually wrapped and ready for her on her 50th birthday."
Snow is survived by his wife, Jill Ellen Walker, and their three children.
