William Ramsey Snodgrass, Sr. (September 15, 1922 – April 20, 2008) was an American accountant who was the 32nd

Comptroller of the Treasury of Tennessee The Comptroller of the Treasury of Tennessee is an office established by Chapter 12 of the Public Acts of 1835-36 of Tennessee's General Assembly. Later, in 1870, the position of Comptroller became mandatory by the state constitution. The office h ...

from 1955 until 1999, serving 22 terms in that office.

Biography

Snodgrass was born in 1922 in

Sparta, Tennessee Sparta is a city in and the county seat of White County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 5,001 in 2020.U.S. Census we ...

. He graduated from David Lipscomb College in 1942. He served in the

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, serving from 1943 until 1946. He received a bachelor's degree in accounting from the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state ...

in 1947. Snodgrass was appointed as a research assistant at the Bureau of Business Research at the University of Tennessee in 1947. He was then hired as a consultant on municipal accounting and finance at the

Municipal Technical Advisory Service The Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS) is an agency of the University of Tennessee System#University of Tennessee Institute of Public Service, University of Tennessee Institute for Public Service (IPS) that provides assistance and training ...

of the University of Tennessee in 1951. In 1953, Snodgrass began his career in public service when he was appointed as Tennessee's director of Budget and director of Local Finance. In 1955, the Tennessee General Assembly elected him as the state's Comptroller of the Treasury. He was subsequently re-elected every two years and served a total of 22 terms in office. Snodgrass received many accolades and awards during his long tenure of public service. He retired as Comptroller of the Treasury on January 13, 1999. However, he was given the honorific title of Comptroller Emeritus and maintained an office that he regularly visited until shortly before his death. Due to his long and distinguished career in public service, Tennessee's largest state office building was renamed the

William R. Snodgrass Tennessee Tower The William R. Snodgrass Tennessee Tower (also known as the Tennessee Tower) is a skyscraper in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, that houses Tennessee government offices. The tower was built for the National Life and Accident Insurance Company and ...

. The William R. Snodgrass Distinguished Leadership Award was also created in his honor. Snodgrass died on April 20, 2008, after a short illness. He was survived by his wife, Faye, and three children.

References

1922 births 2008 deaths State cabinet secretaries of Tennessee Comptrollers of the Treasury of Tennessee American military personnel of World War II People from Sparta, Tennessee Lipscomb University alumni University of Tennessee alumni {{Tennessee-politician-stub