Tony Snow -- an amazing man

I am in San Francisco right now, and late last night I found out that Tony Snow had passed away. I called my wife right away, and we talked about it for several minutes. You see, I had had the extremely good fortune to have worked at the Tony Snow show during the last week than it actually WAS the Tony Snow show.

It was while I was in the Army’s Training with Industry program at Fox News. I spent a week down in Washington, DC. It was incredible. Every morning we would come in at 5:30 a.m., grab a cup of coffee, and meet in Tony’s office to discuss the news of the day.

This was of course, the week that Tony was making his decision about becoming the White House press secretary. Tony asked for everyone’s opinion, including mine.

That was the thing that I noticed immediately about Tony – everybody was an equally respected part of the team.

The first day I was there for his radio show, we were getting worried because we were 30 seconds from the star of the show and Tony was still in the restroom.

I will never forget what happened next.

Literally, at four seconds before we went on the air, Tony walks in from the other room holding a cup of coffee. The music was playing, and he sent his cup of coffee down, picked up his headphones, and started talking right on time. He talked nonstop for 18 ½ minutes – I know because I kept track. He spoke intelligently, he never stumbled or stuttered and his thoughts were well-organized and eloquent.

I was amazed.

Tony Snow – an incredible human being.