President Bush's new spokesman, Tony Snow, has a long history of speaking out, say friends and former colleagues in North Carolina, where Snow studied and worked.

Long before Snow achieved national exposure as a radio and television commentator, he was a student and editorial writer in this state. At Davidson College, where he graduated in 1977, Snow was already passionate about politics, said philosophy professor Lance Stell, who has kept in touch with his former student over the years.

"He was the only student who has ever challenged me to a debate," Stell recalled.

Stell said Snow wanted to defend the viability of libertarianism during a seminar on political philosophy.

"He takes ideas very seriously," Stell said Wednesday. "He knows what he's talking about and knows it's important to be informed."

College spokesman Bill Giduz said Snow has maintained ties with the small liberal arts college throughout his career. A Cincinnati native, Snow has presented numerous talks on campus, including a keynote address during homecoming in 1999.

He received the college's Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2002 while attending his 25th reunion.

According to the college, Snow served as an advocate for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled in North Carolina after graduation.

He studied philosophy and economics at the University of Chicago during the 1978-79 academic year, and he served an internship at the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation in Winston-Salem before taking his first newspaper job as an editorial writer for the Greensboro Record. He went on to write for newspapers in Virginia, Detroit and Washington.

Former colleagues at the North Carolina newspaper remembered him as ambitious and conservative.

Giles Lambertson, associate editor of the Wilson Daily Times, was editorial page editor of the Greensboro Record when Snow was writing editorials in 1979.

"I'm a pretty conservative guy, but he was kind of like the William F. Buckley doctrinaire approach," Lambertson said. "He was pretty faithful to that, and he stayed pretty faithful through the years."

John Alexander of Greensboro, who was editorial page editor of the Greensboro Daily News when Snow was at the Record, remembered him as creative and unconventional. "I don't think he will step into it and do it the way it has always been done," he said.

On a personal level, Snow was described as open, generous and good-natured. And tall.

Allen Johnson, editorial page editor of The News and Record of Greensboro, said Snow's height was evident when he stopped by the newspaper office for a visit. "I had to look up at him," said Johnson, who is about 6 foot 3.

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