He's as much a part of the Canaan Valley landscape as the deer herds, rugged mountains and twisted trees. Everybody in the valley knows Bobby Snyder, the guiding light behind the ski school at Timberline Four Seasons Resort.

Under his diligent care, the school grew from one man (he was the man) to a highly respected operation with 149 instructors and nine departments.

He arrived in the valley in the mid-1970s with a French bride. They fell in love with the scenery, the people, the Canaan "mystique" and plunged into community life like a skilled skier deadheading down a double-diamond slope.

He grew up overseas. His father, a Petersburg native, worked for the U.S. government. He learned to ski at age 5 in Afghanistan.

The ski area at Timberline was a field where he broke horses. He helped cut the first ski trails. They rolled a bowling ball down the mountain to mark the trees.

Rudimentary stuff. That's how far back he goes. The ski area icon is 60.

"My father studied agriculture in Morgantown and got a job in the State Department. His first assignment was Karachi, Pakistan. He took his whole family to Karachi. I was 3. He was the agriculture agent for the International Cooperation Administration.

"My mother started the international school there. It's probably one of the biggest schools in that region now. She started with 12 students. Two years later, my father was reassigned to Kabul, Afghanistan, as director of the Agency for International Development. That's where I learned to ski.

"We had a diplomatic corps there. The Austrians and French and everybody would teach all the kids how to ski. I was 5. There were no ski areas. You had to climb yourselves. The mountains were very high there, so we didn't have to climb much. It was probably like it was over here when Bob Barton had the first ski area at White Grass.

"In 1959, we went to Kenya. We think it was my father who sent Obama's father to Hawaii. That's what my father did, sent people over to get educated in the United States. I was 8 when I went to Kenya.

"My dad worked all the countries, Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika, Zanzibar. If you've seen the movie 'Out of Africa,' the house that's in the movie is the house we lived in.

"The first school I went to was a British school. I was the only American. I had to wear the uniforms of the British. I had a very strong British accent. I lost it when I went to the Ivory Coast. I was thrown into a French school and had to learn French.

"I thought the principal of the high school was an ex-Nazi. They would beat your fingers with rulers. But life there was wonderful. We'd go boating. It was right on the beach. We'd eat fresh fish every day. We had a swimming pool in our yard. I thought everybody had this kind of life.

"My dad got hepatitis and was shipped back to United States, and I finally got to meet my family in West Virginia. I went to school in Petersburg, where both of my parents are from. We have an old house in Lahmansville.

"My dad worried that I wasn't going to get a college education because I'd been going to so many schools with so many different languages. He wanted to send me to a boarding school in the U.S. so I could get a high school diploma and go to college. He found a school in National Geographic magazine called Randolph Macon Academy in Front Royal, Va., close enough to Petersburg, where my aunts and uncles were.

"I went four years to a military high school. I got on the rifle team. I still shoot every Sunday up here. I graduated in 1965 and was accepted at Pratt Institute in New York City for architectural design.

Under his diligent care, the school grew from one man (he was the man) to a highly respected operation with 149 instructors and nine departments.

He arrived in the valley in the mid-1970s with a French bride. They fell in love with the scenery, the people, the Canaan "mystique" and plunged into community life like a skilled skier deadheading down a double-diamond slope.

He grew up overseas. His father, a Petersburg native, worked for the U.S. government. He learned to ski at age 5 in Afghanistan.

The ski area at Timberline was a field where he broke horses. He helped cut the first ski trails. They rolled a bowling ball down the mountain to mark the trees.

Rudimentary stuff. That's how far back he goes. The ski area icon is 60.

"My father studied agriculture in Morgantown and got a job in the State Department. His first assignment was Karachi, Pakistan. He took his whole family to Karachi. I was 3. He was the agriculture agent for the International Cooperation Administration.

"My mother started the international school there. It's probably one of the biggest schools in that region now. She started with 12 students. Two years later, my father was reassigned to Kabul, Afghanistan, as director of the Agency for International Development. That's where I learned to ski.

"We had a diplomatic corps there. The Austrians and French and everybody would teach all the kids how to ski. I was 5. There were no ski areas. You had to climb yourselves. The mountains were very high there, so we didn't have to climb much. It was probably like it was over here when Bob Barton had the first ski area at White Grass.

"In 1959, we went to Kenya. We think it was my father who sent Obama's father to Hawaii. That's what my father did, sent people over to get educated in the United States. I was 8 when I went to Kenya.

"My dad worked all the countries, Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika, Zanzibar. If you've seen the movie 'Out of Africa,' the house that's in the movie is the house we lived in.

"The first school I went to was a British school. I was the only American. I had to wear the uniforms of the British. I had a very strong British accent. I lost it when I went to the Ivory Coast. I was thrown into a French school and had to learn French.

"I thought the principal of the high school was an ex-Nazi. They would beat your fingers with rulers. But life there was wonderful. We'd go boating. It was right on the beach. We'd eat fresh fish every day. We had a swimming pool in our yard. I thought everybody had this kind of life.

"My dad got hepatitis and was shipped back to United States, and I finally got to meet my family in West Virginia. I went to school in Petersburg, where both of my parents are from. We have an old house in Lahmansville.

"My dad worried that I wasn't going to get a college education because I'd been going to so many schools with so many different languages. He wanted to send me to a boarding school in the U.S. so I could get a high school diploma and go to college. He found a school in National Geographic magazine called Randolph Macon Academy in Front Royal, Va., close enough to Petersburg, where my aunts and uncles were.

"I went four years to a military high school. I got on the rifle team. I still shoot every Sunday up here. I graduated in 1965 and was accepted at Pratt Institute in New York City for architectural design.

"After I got my degree, I worked in an architectural firm. There were hundreds of us at drafting tables. My section was designing a subway station, and it became so boring that my dad asked me to come up and renovate the old log house. He wanted to retire to the house he was born in and raise cattle. So I renovated the house and put it on the National Historic Register. He died in that house.

"My sister saw an ad in the Grant County newspaper - waiters and waitresses needed; free skiing in Canaan Valley. Timberline was opening its lodge. This was 1977. My wife and I decided we would wait tables and ski for the winter then figure out what we want do with rest of our life in the spring.

"Annie was French, a teacher with a group in California on assignment in Petersburg. We got married in 1975. We stayed in West Virginia because we met so many nice people here. When you travel the world like I did, it's nice to stay in one place, speak one language and get to know some friends for more than a year or two.

"The state ski area was built in '71. When Timberline's lodge opened in '77, the ski area didn't exist, just the homes. David Downs, the original developer, wanted stables, so they started Cabin Mountain Stables, and Annie was in charge of that. I started doing the hayrides and sleigh rides and overnight trips. I handled the team. I was the slave who hauled all the stuff out to the overnight camps.

"Annie and I broke the horses where the ski area is now. It was a field. David would go buy the horses at the slaughterhouse in Front Royal, Va. We'd have to break them to use as trail horses.

"We were joining clubs and running events and skiing day and night. I joined Alpine Heritage Preservation with Anita Barton. We bought the opera house in Thomas for a dollar. Twenty years later, I'm still trying to renovate that.

"David Downs said he was going to start a ski area so he could sell some property. We thought he was crazy. He went to New Hampshire and bought a T-bar which only went up half the mountain and a submarine engine or generator so we could run pumps for the air-water snowmaking system. And we cut these trails. We used a bowling ball.

"Fred Saltow was screaming at David, 'How are we going to cut the trails?' I said, 'I don't know. I'm just a ski instructor.' Fred said, 'Why don't we kick a basketball down and mark the trees to cut?' He took a basketball up on the mountain and kicked it, and it was gone. It went too fast. So Fred suggested a bowling ball. When the bowling ball hit a tree, they would mark that tree to cut.

"I was night ski school director at Canaan Valley State Park and moved to Timberline full time in '86. I started instructing at Canaan in '77. From '83 to '86, I was an instructor here and at Canaan. The last time I instructed at Canaan was a night lesson, and I had 186 students by myself. I moved here permanently next day.

"In '88, I was the ski director and also the only instructor. I would sign up students by a potbellied stove in a little rectangular lodge. I would run out and teach the lesson then come back to sign up another class.

"That year, I hired 10 instructors. I put posters up in the cafeteria. I would tell people about the program. They thought we had 20 or 30 people. They finally figured out what I was doing, and we got together and set up the ski school. Now we have 149 instructors and nine different departments.

"It's very stressful. I work seven days a week for 146 days straight. There's a very short window for you to make money in a ski area, so you can't take much time off. But I get spring, summer and fall with my other jobs. I'm zoning inspector for Canaan Valley and architectural review chairman for all of Timberline. I have to approve all houses and where they are placed.

"It's wonderful here. No stoplights. No crazy road systems. No shopping. No movie theaters either. A lot of people don't like that, but I like it because it's very quiet and not as stressful as living in the city and competing with everybody. You just have to have two or three jobs to survive.

"Canaan Valley has its own mystique, its own ecosystem. When we were horseback riding on the Sods, the terrain looked like a dinosaur could come out from behind the rocks. There's nothing else like it. It has its own subtle beauty that's unbelievable.

"Most people can't manage, because they don't know how to assign something. It goes to their ego. You have to be the slave when you're a manager. I've always thought like my father - treat everyone the way you want to be treated. I'm a fairly good manager because of that.

"All I ever wanted to be was a success. If I can make something work, that's a success. I don't need anything else."

Reach Sandy Wells at san...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5173.