Life with Cancer

As I continue my wellness expedition I’m impacted by cancer daily. Friends and relatives have or are fighting this dreaded disease. Some are winning, some not, and some have lost.

While doing research, I found a Blog I wrote upon learning that Forensic Anthropologist Dr. Clyde Snow had died. With fond admiration for Dr. Snow I decided to post again in my cancer Blog.

Monday, May 19, 2014

Clyde Snow has died. May 16, 2014

Clyde Snow has died. He succumbed to cancer on May 16, 2014.

Dr. Clyde Collins Snow PhD will be greatly missed not only in his native Oklahoma but around the world.  His legacy is great and far reaching.

To homicide investigators and cold case homicide investigators in particular Dr. Snow made a significant impact.  He was the ultimate cold case investigator.  He proved that over and over during his lifetime as a forensic anthropologist. Dr. Snow’s investigations like Argentina’s Dirty War where thousands “disappeared” or Kurdistan where Saddam Hussein committed genocide against Kurds defined him as the spokesman for those murdered victims and human rights.

Dr. Snow established forensic anthropology as the foundation for cold case homicide investigations. In Dr. Snow’s words, “As those who study them have come to learn, bones make good witnesses – although they speak softly, they never lie and they never forget.”  “I’m anti-homicide, no matter who it happens to or where it occurs. I think homicide is the greatest violation of human rights that can be committed. We can help in many of those cases. I think that justifies our efforts.”

I can’t validate the story but I can promote the myth of Dr. Snow as the inspiration for the Indiana Jones character.  While he was not an archeologist or search for Christian artifacts he did identify the Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele.  Dr. Snow will be long remembered for excavating mass graves of murder victims while wearing his signature leather jacket and fedora.  Like Indiana Jones who fought Nazis, Dr. Snow fought abusive governments and human rights violations around the world.

Argentina, Guatemala, Bosnia, Kurdistan, Angola, Dr. Snow risked his life to expose the truth of human rights and murder.  In his words, “The death of a million is a statistic; the death of one is a tragedy.” He exposed human rights for what it is a tragedy and prosecuted it one individual, one life, one soul, at a time.

Dr. Snow managed to enter the “belly of the beast” and emerge with the evidence needed to prosecute a murder.  In characteristic Dr. Snow style I’m sure he would say to his adversaries, “Tough shit.” To understand that phrase you must listen to his interview after traveling through snow by donkey into the mountains of Kurdistan to investigate Saddam Hussein and “Chemical Ali’s” (Hussein’s cousin Ali Hassan Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti) mass murders of Kurds by using chemical agents. 

To those that ever met Clyde Snow you could not help but be drawn to his warm and friendly demeanor or wonderful stories of his exploits.  He could really tell a story that kept you on the edge of your seat waiting for not only the punch line that you knew was coming but also the mystery of when the ash would fall from his cigarette. 

In this politically correct era no one would ever dare deny Dr. Snow his cigarette, in a sense that is an example of the reverence and esteem with which Dr. Snow was held.  At 86 years young Dr. Snow’s subsidy of the tobacco industry has ended but his greatest legacy to human rights will live on in those he mentored and inspired.

Godspeed Dr. Snow.  The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 1 Corinthians 15:26.

Mike

Michael L. Nance