Bill Snead's first assignments for the Lawrence Journal-World were mixing chemicals and making engravings. That was in 1954 while he was a senior at Lawrence High School.

He later became a one-man photo department attending Kansas University between assignments.

After a few years he moved on to the Topeka Capital-Journal as a staff photographer and six years later to the Wilmington (Delaware) News-Journal as chief photographer.

While minding his own business and winning some photo contests in Wilmington, Delaware, he was asked by United Press International to run their photo operation in Saigon. He was assigned there from late 1967 through most of 1969. He arrived there weeks before the Tet Offensive, which set off the heaviest fighting of the Vietnam War and it continued through 1968.

In 1969 he was assigned to run the UPI Photo Bureau in Chicago.

Snead's next stop was National Geographic in Washington, D.C. where he worked as picture editor. He produced stories that ranged from Gray Whales to New Orleans to the Cumberland Gap.

In 1972, he moved two blocks down the street to The Washington Post where he was hired as the Assistant Managing Editor for Photo and Graphics. During his 21-year Post career, he worked as a picture editor, shot for Washington Post Magazine, was the event coordinator at Super Bowls, national political conventions, breaking national news events and was a staff photographer.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, he worked extensively in eastern Europe covering first-ever democratic elections, various attempts at capitalism, and the exit of communism as we knew it. He shot photos and wrote stories.

He also covered the exodus of a million Kurds from Iraq who fled over the mountains into the unopened arms of Turkey. For over a week after Snead arrived in Turkey, the Washington Post was the only newspaper in America to have daily pictures and stories on the plight of the Kurds who were dying at a rate of 1,000 per day.

Before leaving the Post in 1993, he was named White House Photographer of the Year, was a runner-up for a Pulitzer Prize and had pictures published in major magazines such as Life, Sports Illustrated, Newsweek, Paris Match, Stern, Time, Penthouse and the like.

Ten years ago, Snead returned to his boyhood home and the Lawrence Journal-World as deputy editor in charge of the newsroom. He was involved in the Journal-World and in changing from an afternoon publication to a morning newspaper and its first major redesign.

During his six years as head of the newsroom, the Lawrence newspaper was chosen as the best paper in Kansas three different years. It also was runner-up in the Pictures of the Year Contest for best use of pictures by a newspaper.

While in Lawrence, Snead has taught classes in photojournalism and reporting at Kansas University.

Snead has won awards in the Pictures of the Year competition in each decade over the past 40 years.

In 2000, Snead was awarded firsts in feature writing and photo stories in the Kansas Press Association competition.

Snead is currently senior editor with various duties that include writing and photography for the Journal-World, developing special projects for the newspaper's ground-breaking Website (ljworld.com) and Cable Television News Six.