By Alan Burke
MARBLEHEAD — He was the ultimate utility man. Like the baseball player who could field every position, Dana Snow did just about everything in Marblehead.
And he did it with actual utilities.
Late last month, Snow, 61, stepped down after nearly four decades of service to the town, leaving a job that saw him direct the highway and water and sewer departments — once three separate positions. The town has now elevated two of his top lieutenants, David Donahue for the roads and Chuck McCollum for water and sewer, to take his place.
"He is one in a million," Selectman Judy Jacobi said. "This guy was always there for everybody. And he just absolutely loves the town. ... I never felt that I couldn't call him."
As a young man, Snow flirted with the idea of a military career. An Air Force veteran, he was stationed at Cam Ranh Bay (1969-'70) during the Vietnam War and participated in the Cambodian incursion.
"The Air Force was a good experience," he recalled. "A very good learning tool." It gave him a sense of satisfaction helping fellow GIs. Further, he defied conventional wisdom — "I volunteered for everything."
But the pull of home was too strong for someone whose family has lived in Marblehead since the 1750s. He joined the sewer department, working for George Clark and starting at the bottom of the employee pecking order.
Keep your head down, he was told, while working in sewers.
"My mother-in-law had problems with it," he said with a chuckle. "She couldn't tell anyone her son-in-law worked in the sewer department."
In his spare time, Snow took courses in waste management at the University of Lowell. Yet, it was time-consuming.
"When my (two boys) were young, my wife put up with a lot," he said.
Plowing snow on Marblehead Neck during the Blizzard of '78, Snow saw the highest tides in memory washing over the causeway. He developed a strong relationship with his fellow employees, something that helped when he became head of both the water and sewer department in 1983.
"He's blessed with significant organizational skills," said Selectman Harry Christensen, one of Snow's Marblehead cousins. More than that, Snow showed a talent for delegating, finding good people and giving them appropriate responsibilities. "I don't think we could have been better served," Christensen said.
In 2007, the highway job was added to his responsibilities.
Not that there weren't problems along the way. "We had some difficult personal issues," Snow said. "I had a divorce myself." He hastened to add that he harbors no hard feelings toward his former wife.
Snow is now engaged to be married and is looking forward to an active retirement, selling lawn mowers and snowblowers and answering questions from friends, neighbors and even town officials worried where all the water should go.
During the March downpour, Snow visited his old office just to be sure he wasn't needed.
Golf is in his future and, the former airman said, "I love to go on an airplane. Anytime I can go — I go." He's even taken a tandem parachute jump and gone aboard gliders. He does it exclusively as a passenger, however.
Said the man who came to run three departments, "I don't want to be holding the wheel."
