He was President Bush's third press secretary, brought in to revitalize a second term administration increasing the unpopular and off message. Tony Snow brought to the job the credentials of a journalist and the polish of a TV star.

Tony already knows most of you, and he's a…agreed to take the job anyway. And I'm really glad he did.

And the former conservative pundit took it despite being fresh off a bout with colon cancer.

No, no, just having gone through this last year, and I said this to Chris Wallace was the best thing that ever happened to me.

A natural wordsmith, Snow defended Bush policies with gusto and clearly relished the cut and thrust of his daily meetings with reporters.

The Palestinian is not being bankrupted, Helen. What s happening as you know is that there's a, the Hamas is a terrorist organization. We do not give money to terrorist organizations.

Snow was a young editorial writer when he first came to the White House to write speeches for Bush's father. But most of Americans got to know him through TV as the genial but acerbic host of Fox News Sunday. At the White House podium, Snow was an unflinching Bush booster. But away from it, he was a devout family man who cut loose playing flute with a rock band. And his time at the podium was fleeting--ten months after starting his cancer was back.

In re(cent), a recent series of CAT scans and PET scans and MRIs we have found a small growth in my lower abdomen. Blood tests are negative. PET scans are negative. But out of an aggressive sense of caution, I‘m gonna go in for surgery on Monday, and have it removed.

Aides were in tears, reporters stunned.

And I'll miss you each and every day, especially when I'm sore and filled up with drugs.

Snow eventually handed the job to his deputy, Dana Perino, but not before telling a banquet of White House correspondents-Washington's not the snake pit it's cracked up to be. It's a small town where we are quite often bound together by extraordinary experiences, and the unique honor of sitting at a seat of government of a nation that not only remakes history but also defines what it means to be a good country.

Looking out at the great and the good that evening, he offered this advice: If you see someone in need, do some good and pass it on.

Mark Smith, the Associated Press, the White House.