William R. Snodgrass, 1922-2008.

In 1961 I went to work for William R. Snodgrass, Tennessee's Comptroller of the Treasury, in the State Capitol in Nashville. At that time I was the second secretary in his office. Five years later I became his personal executive secretary.

Mr. Snodgrass died around midnight last night. He had severe back pain for several years and was in Centennial Medical Center last week. On Monday I went to see him. When I got to his room he was sitting up in bed, watching CNN, and talking to Secretary of State Riley Darnell on the phone. It was as if we were back in the office. I found out that was the first day during his hospital stay that he had talked on the phone or watched his favorite TV channel.

Mr. Snodgrass served as Tennessee's Comptroller for 44 years. He retired in 1999 because of health problems. Primarily it was due to glaucoma, which caused the loss of vision in one eye and severely limited his sight in the other. After he retired the General Assembly renamed the Tennessee Tower (originally the National Life & Accident Building and then the Life & Casualty Building) as the William R. Snodgrass Tennessee Tower and honored him with the title Comptroller Emeritus. Mr. Snodgrass was given an office on the 27th floor of the Tower, and he continued to work on a limited basis.

After his retirement, I continued to work for the Comptroller and also spent part of my days working with Mr. Snodgrass. I have greatly missed him since I retired in December of 2004.

There are so many things I could say about Mr. Snodgrass. I always respected him, his ability, his knowledge, and especially his fairness. Members of the legislature always had great respect and admiration for him. It was because of him that the Comptroller's position is involved in so many phases of state government.

He will always be a hero to me.