SEARCY — Steve Snow taught for 41 years, but in his mind, he never really worked.
Snow, who retired this year as the AP English teacher at Searcy High School, said he adopted his dad’s philosophy.
“Something my dad told me when I was 15, or 16 was, ‘Find something you enjoy doing, and make it your career, and you will never work a day in your life,’” Snow said.
Snow takes advice well from those he admires. He got into teaching because of something he overheard his cousin Jim Lemmons of Texas say.
“I just always knew there was something I liked about people and helping people. My cousin, who was 11 years older — he was one of my heroes in life. I heard him say, ‘We need more good teachers in the world.’”
Snow, 69, grew up as the oldest of four in Hurst, Texas, between Fort Worth and Dallas. His dad, Bob, worked for what was then Bell Helicopter, and Snow’s mother, Barbara, was a stay-at-home mother.
“Mom raised us; she had the hardest job,” he said.
Snow went to a junior college in Odessa, Texas, on a full gymnastics scholarship. His expertise was on the pommel horse, and he won a state championship in high school and a junior-college national championship.
“I met a coach (Mike Willson) in Odessa who I think was the most inspirational human being I’ve ever met,” he said. “He was really into our education. He was more into developing a human being and our integrity and our character. He took a bunch of ordinary guys and made us extraordinary,” Snow said.
As a junior, Snow transferred to Northeast Louisiana University in Monroe, also on a full gymnastics scholarship.
An adviser at Northeast Louisiana asked Snow what he was going to do for a career.
“I said, ‘I’m going to coach gymnastics.’ He said, ‘But what are you going to teach?’”
Snow said he hadn’t considered what he’d teach, but he had excellent grades in English.
“I love to read; I love to write; I love to discuss it,” he said. “You get to read about life; you get to discuss life, then write about it. You get to teach [students] skills in that area.”
Snow taught seventh-grade English in San Antonio, Texas, for one year, and he has taught high school the rest of his career.
About 13 years ago, he was teaching at Berkner High School in Richardson, Texas, when he knew it was time to make a change, he said.
“The school I was at was having some struggles. I pulled a gun off a kid in the hallway one day. I told my wife, and she said, ‘What were you thinking?’”
The couple decided it was time to move, but Searcy wasn’t on their radar at first.
“This whole thing was a God thing; I couldn’t have orchestrated it better,” Snow said of their move.
He and Jill have a son, Scott, and a daughter, Kristen Snow Hunt, who were attending Harding University in Searcy at the time. They had gone to a small Christian high school from the sixth grade on, and they were all-state soccer players. His son looked for a small Christian college where he could play soccer and found one he liked in Chicago.
“I said, ‘I’ll never see my son again,’” Snow said. But he recalled that one of his students had a brother who played soccer at Harding University, and he called the school.
“The coach said, ‘It’s odd you called — my best player on the team is the same position as your son, but there is no one to back him up, so he plays the whole game.’”
Snow’s son went to Harding and played soccer, moving to the starting position, and graduated in 2007. Snow’s daughter also graduated from Harding in 2010.
Snow applied for a job in the Searcy School District and met then-Principal Claude Smith. They clicked immediately, and a job opening came later.
Walnut Ridge-native Smith, who worked his entire 41-year career in the Searcy School District, said Snow was the epitome of what a teacher should be.
“I was very impressed with him from the moment he walked in the door, and he has been nothing but a success story ever since. He’s not only one of the finest teachers I’ve ever been around; he’s one of the finest gentlemen,” Smith said.
“He is so student-driven. He loves kids; he loves his subject matter. His classes were so much fun to watch. He was a counselor; he was a confidant. The kids, they could trust him. He was probably the best teacher I’ve ever seen supportive of every kid in school. He went to all the ballgames, all the band concerts. He was there to support every kid, and they knew it.”
Snow signed only a one-year contract to fill in for the Pre-Advanced Placement English teacher who had to take over the drama classes because that teacher left. However, the English teacher took a job in administration, so Snow kept his position.
He started teaching Pre-AP 10th-grade English 12 years ago and this year added three regular English classes to the four AP classes.
“I love it all. I love doing Julius Caesar, by Shakespeare, with my kids,” he said. “Early in the year, they have to write for me a lot. When they write, they get a 0 or a 100. If the paper isn’t error-free, it’s a zero.
“I tell them, ‘You’re going to get a 100. It’s how many times it takes you. Then all the zeroes go away. You have to correct it until it’s error-free, or your writing has no credibility.’”
When Snow’s retirement was announced on Facebook, parents praised his teaching and encouragement. One woman said her son was dyslexic and that Snow had made a big difference for him.
“I can’t say enough about Mr. Snow. My son … had the privilege of having him this year. He came into [Mr. Snow’s] class with dyslexia, not knowing how to even write in cursive. His sentences and paragraphs definitely needed lots of work. He left Mr. Snow’s class knowing how to read and write cursive and is a very confident writer. He feels so much more confident since he will be entering college in a couple of years, and this is because of Mr. Snow. Thank you, Mr. Snow, for investing in my son this year!”
Snow said that of all the hundreds of stories of his 41-year career, one comes to mind immediately. A student went home one day and found her father, who had killed himself.
She sat in Snow’s classroom late one day and told him she couldn’t go home.
The principal gave that student permission to get up and walk out of a classroom when she needed to “and just come in my classroom and sit,” Snow said. He kept expecting her to ask a certain question, and he’d prayed about how to answer.
“One morning she said, all of a sudden, ‘Mr. Snow, why did my daddy do that?’”
Snow told her, “[If your father could answer, he’d say], ‘I made the biggest mistake of my life.’ I think he would change what he did, but it was too late,” Snow said.
The student also asked Snow to escort her as part of homecoming court twice.
“That was a memorable time that really made an impression on me,” he said.
But he’s packing up the memories and selling some of his possessions.
He and his wife, Jill, who taught at Westside Elementary School in Searcy and retired last year, plan to rent their home and “hit the road” with their fifth-wheel trailer.
“We like to hike and sightsee and ride motorcycles,” he said. They also have two Mini Cooper cars, and they attend Mini Cooper rallies.
Snow also lifts weights — a lot of weight.
“My birthday month is April, and I always set goals of weightlifting. My goal is a 315-pound bench press,” he said.
A week after his 66th birthday, he bench-pressed 310 pounds.
“I couldn’t go to that 315. Every year, I’ve been trying to do that, but I’m just not there,” he said.
Snow said he loves to fly-fish, too, and his wife has promised to learn.
And he has books to read.
“So many books, so little time. I’ve been in the middle of Les Miserables, on Page 700 on that, for three years. I read books in-between that,” he said.
He also has two sons from a previous marriage, Matthew and Clay, both of Texas, and a total of nine grandchildren he’ll spend time visiting.
Snow said it was hard to decide to leave teaching.
“I really like what I do, and I have a passion for working with kids and making a difference,” he said. “That’s why it’s so tough for me to retire.”
Then again, it’s never really been work.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.