It would be a mark of immense distinction to leave this life having achieved as much professionally as did Tony Snow in a career that spanned three decades. Yet his death Saturday, at age 53, unfairly robbed his family and friends of a man whose private virtues far transcended his public accomplishments. A son of Kentucky who grew up in the Cincinnati area, Snow was throughout his life a man for whom the right and true word was always the central focus of his thought and work.

After studying philosophy and economics, he took up the pen of opinion journalism, serving as an editorial page editor or deputy editor of a succession of daily newspapers, including the Greensboro (N.C.) Record, Virginian-Pilot, Detroit News and the Washington Times. He was known for editorials and columns that were crisply written, bluntly eloquent and thoroughly seeped in the sturdy values of an American patriot and traditional conservative.

But it was not enough for Snow to excel on the opinion pages of daily newspapers. In 1991, he became chief speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush and then following the 1992 election became a nationally syndicated columnist and a frequent Talk Radio guest and host. And when Fox News offered him the chance to launch the then-infant cable news operation's Sunday news discussion show, the protean Snow distinguished himself in yet another medium.

It was during his seven years at the helm of "Fox News Sunday with Tony Snow" that public officials of all stripes and millions of Americans from across the ideological spectrum came to know the gentle firmness of spirit and resolute joy in public policy exchange that defined his public personality. His stint as White House press secretary for the second President Bush reinforced and refined those qualities by providing a daily platform for their exercise and display.

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It has been said that Snow's finest public hour came as we watched him struggle with the colon cancer that ultimately took his life. Despite the pressures of his job, the difficulties of serving an increasingly unpopular wartime president, and the terrible agonies that accompanied his illness, Snow never lost his good humor, grace, or humility under fire.

He was the rare kind of man who inspired those most troubling of questions - why him and why now? Those were especially poignant questions for the legions of colleagues and friends who knew something of the personal side of Tony Snow, including his many kindnesses, his encouragement, his passion for his music, and, most of all, his love for his family and his God.

And when he passed from our midst, all agreed that he made his greatest mark as a private man -- as a faithful husband and loving father, as a true friend and as a good man. Our prayers are with his wife and children.