Considered the world's leading forensic anthropologist, Clyde Snow travels internationally to unlock secrets of the dead.
The 73-year-old Oklahoman has identified thousands of victims of disasters, accidents and violent crimes. In many cases, he's discovered how individuals died and aided law enforcement officials in bringing their killers to justice.
"It's challenging work, and a lot of these cases turn into interesting detective stories," Snow said. "There's a feeling that we're actually doing a little good out here."
Some of Snow's cases are high-profile. He helped identify Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele's remains, identified the bones of a scout who died at Little Bighorn with Lt. Col. George Custer, reviewed John F. Kennedy's autopsy photographs and examined the remains of boys and young men killed by John Wayne Gacy.
But Snow's rise in an exacting and difficult science couldn't have been predicted during his youth.
He was a rambunctious teen and a poor student. For years, he lacked direction. He received bad grades in high school and was expelled for a firecracker prank. He attended military school, where a roommate taught him how to study. But though Snow learned to write notes on index cards, memorize them and improve his test scores, his educational victories were short-lived. When he transferred to Southern Methodist University, he flunked out.
"I'll be frank with you, I was having fun," he said. "I just kind of drifted around."
While searching for a career path, Snow attended a series of schools and changed majors several times. He finally graduated from Eastern New Mexico University in 1951. He then studied archeology, medicine, zoology and primate biology and served in the Air Force before deciding to specialize in anthropology.
The discipline intrigued him. Suddenly, he was able to achieve the dedicated focus he so lacked in his youth.
Though Snow's schooling was erratic, his work history was anything but.
As he worked on his doctorate, he took a job as a physical anthropologist at the Federal Aviation Administration's Civil Aeromedical Institute in Oklahoma City. There he built dummies for simulated crashes, measured airline personnel for engineering projects and aided in redesigning seat restraints and escape systems for commercial aircraft. By 1968, he was head of the laboratory.
