Journalism Instructor Howard Snider was almost born in a toilet.
"[My mother] misinterpreted her labor pains and thought she had to go to the potty," Snider, 72, said. "So, I started coming into the world while she was sitting on the potty."
Nearly being birthed in toilet water would serve only as a precursor to the fascinating and intriguing life that would unfold in front of him.
Although he was born and raised in Muncie, attended Ball State and now teaches at Ball State, Snider's life story is not one of a man who spent all his years in Middletown, America. Those who know him are no strangers to "Howie's" life stories, which include tales from his 20 years as a pilot in the Marines, the documentary made about his family and the album he and a friend recorded.
Seminary school and girls
Growing up, Snider didn't see a lot of his father due to his involvement with World War II. Without a father figure around much to guide him, Snider said he turned to his pastor, Father Bob, at St. Mary Parish for a role model.
Snider spent his high school years attending Sacred Heart and Our Lady of the Lake seminary schools as a direct result of his relationship with Father Bob.
However, Snider dropped out after his senior year. He said he wanted a family and that would not be possible if he continued down the path to priesthood.
Snider said he wanted to attend college, but he did not have an accredited high school diploma. Snider and a fellow classmate hitch-hiked to Fort Wayne and asked the Fort Wayne Bishop to give them a diploma. Snider officially graduated from Huntington Catholic High School, a school he has never seen.
Once Snider had his accredited diploma he chose to attend Ball State. But while he attended to study journalism, Snider's mind was elsewhere.
"[I studied] the girls. I had been at seminary school for four years, it's like a monastery!" Snider said. "As a result of studying girls and fraternity life, I did very poorly as a student," he added.
The United States began drafting men for the Korean War during his time at Ball State. Snider dropped out and joined the military in 1952, after his sophomore year.
The Marine Corps
Snider was accepted into the Naval Aviation Cadet program in 1953 but instead joined the Marines because he might earn his wings earlier than in the Navy.
Snider said he wanted his wings early so he could marry a girl he met during flight training in Pensacola, Fla.. They met while dragging the main on Palafox Street.
"Today they call it cruising, back then they called it dragging the main," Snider said. "I and my buddies spotted these gals in a car and a little while later encountered them at a drive-in."
One of those gals was Judith McKenzie, now Snider's wife of nearly 50 years.
However, Snider didn't receive his wings early. He and Judy married before he got his wings, while he was still a cadet, even though cadets were forbidden to do so.
During his 20 years of military service, Snider has been stationed in Japan twice. During his station in Iwakuni in 1961, an officer named Chuck Zangas visited the officers' club while Snider was entertaining the crowd with his ukulele and made-up songs.
"(Zangas) decided that if he and I were ever stationed together that we would get together and entertain," Snider said. "Lo and behold, my next assignment and his next assignment was Pensacola, Fla. to be flight instructors."
Snider and Zangas recorded "The Captains' in Pensacola" in1964. With song titles such as "Astronaut Jarhead" and "Give Me That Rib," the music is like something Adam Sandler would sing for Saturday Night Life, '60s style.
"We made 2,000 (LPs), sold 200 and gave out 800," Snider said. "I gave away 200 (to students) last semester."
He keeps the remaining 600 records in his garage.
In1963, he entered a Freedoms Foundation contest for the most patriotic speech. Snider was one of three participants who tied for first place, one of whom was J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Snider retired from the military in 1972 after he learned he would be sent to Japan for a third time, this time in Okinawa.
"(I was) not wanting to go oversees without my family again," Snider said. "We had eight children, and I didn't want to leave (Judy) with that many kids alone."
He left the Marines as a Lieutenant Colonel.
Pizza and a movie
Snider earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Ball State during his service in the Marines. The military sent Snider to Ball State to complete a graduate program after he retired.
However, Snider never completed his master's work.
Zangas and another Marine wanted to open a Shakey's Pizza. The plan was for Snider to finish his degrees and teach but also help his friends run Shakey's. However, Zangas accepted a military position in Iran.
Snider was forced to take over Zangas' role and run the pizza parlor. He left graduate school two classes short of two master's degrees.
Snider ran Shakey's Pizza for 14 years, never finding the time to finish up his remaining two classes.
"In Indiana you have to complete your master's work within seven years or you lose all your credits, so that's what happened to me," Snider said.
However, Ball State offered Snider a part-time position teaching journalism in 1981.
While Snider was running Shakey's Pizza, he was contacted by a film crew conducting a field study of Muncie in the winter of 1980. They wanted to film his family.
"We agreed to let them come into our lives. They spent two months with us; we gave them carte blanch access," Snider said. The film, titled "Family Business," aired on the Public Broadcasting Service in 1982.
The documentary was like a reality TV show with the focus being on the family's problems with the struggling Shakey's Pizza. The drama was whether the family could keep the pizza shop in business.
The film was a success.
"We signed a contract with Henry Winkler to make a TV series; that didn't work out," Snider said. "We signed a contract then with Larry Brezner to do a movie, but it never did happen."
When it was obvious there would be no deals, Snider said he decided to close Shakey's.
What is he doing now?
After closing Shakey's, Snider asked Ball State to hire him as a full-time instructor and they offered him a contract. He no longer needed the master's degree because the university offered him the full-time position based on merit.
Snider said his teaching career at Ball State is like a song:
"Part-time, full-time, part-time, full-time. Here we go again," he sang.
Snider said that he has retired three times, only to return at Ball State's request. He currently teaches journalism for the School of Extended Education.
Looking back
Out of all he has done, Snider considers being named teacher of the year at Ball State, as chosen by the students, his greatest achievement.
"I never was so excited as I was when they told me that I was one of the top teachers in '94," Snider said. "I entered into teaching with a fever. To be honest with you, I had walked through the Student Center and saw those pictures of professors of the year that very first year I started teaching, and I set that as a goal."
Snider turned to his wife for approval.
"Would you agree with that, Judy, of all the things I have achieved?" he asked.
"Oh yeah, teacher of the year," she replied. "It made you cry."
Snider looked up. "Sure did."
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