Bill and Frank I discovered the magic of WFB's astonishing mind "Just in Time" as the title of Sinatra's version of the Comden, Green, & Julie Steyn tune suggests. As a recent transplant to Manhattan from the smokestack corridors of that great but failing steel city of Youngstown, Ohio, I was just a kid with a dream who wanted to follow in his father's show-biz footsteps.
It was 1975 and I, through a friend who was a senior-executive at the International Paper Co., was presented me with an opportunity to write speeches for him. I had been a successful ad writer back in Ohio, but this was way over my head. Bill Buckley to the rescue. Someone had left a copy of National Review in the lobby of our offices at the Daily News building. It looked intriguing and I thought, why not? That first issue was like discovering the keys to an intellectual paradise. The clarity with which Mr. B laid bare every issue he wrote of left me flabbergasted. What a mind! I suppose at the time I subconsciously compared it to the readings of Sinatra, every lyric dripping with honesty, every phrase poignant and personal.
The payoff was that for the next four and one-half years I infused every speech with that irrefutable Buckley logic and went on to become a rising star at International Paper. Without WFB I would probably not have had the steely resolve I needed and would be back as just another wannabe in a failing steel town. Thank you Uncle Bill, You were the godfather I needed. Oh, just one other thing. I'd like to imagine that right now, I can hear a heavenly duo off in the distance, you on harpsichord, Francis singing ... "Just in Time, we found you, just in time, before we came, your time was running low..."
George A. Galip, Jr., Los Angeles, Ca. 03/12 04:18 PM  Carry On As many have already said, never could one imagine feeling so close to someone he never met. But William F. Buckley elicited this type of closeness from his fans, me in particular. I was introduced to Buckley late in high school through National Review, then God and Man at Yale, and then, my favorite book, The Unmaking of a Mayor. Never had I come across such elegant prose and sharp wit, combined with an unrelenting and persuasive conservatism.
As a college senior, it is a shame that more of my peers have never heard of Buckley, let alone read his work. I have run into the dilemma (as I'm sure many readers have) of trying to resist reading excerpts of WFB's work to my friends and siblings which I find especially entertaining or enlightening. The obvious problem is that they appear on every page! When trying to turn someone on to an author, overkill is sometimes not the most successful route.
I pray that more young people learn of WFB and delve into his work as I did.
Heaven knows, we need people who are determined to carry on conservatism in his spirit. Brad Duffy, Davenport, Iowa 03/07 12:52 PM "I Loved WFB's Wit, Worldview, and Sarcasm" I have greatly enjoyed perusing the tributes by writers and readers alike. My first exposure to NR occurred in high school, as my girlfriend’s father Richard Trismen was a subscriber. (A consummate gentleman and Yale law grad, he ironically passed away the day after WFB). I loved the magazine, continued reading it in the Tulane Library, read it working in Congress for two years, read it in law school and continue enjoying it today. I loved WFB’s wit, worldview and sarcasm. I must admit in reading the tributes there is so much I did not know about him. I am making it my mission to read his books, and will be thankful for his life and accomplishments.
W. Rogers Turner, Jr. 03/07 12:50 PM He Lived His Life the Way We All Should A week after the great William F. Buckley Jr. has passed on I find myself reviewing him a bit. It was like this when Milton Friedman and Ronald Reagan passed away. These men that so helped to create my line of thinking are so few yet the work that they have produced will be with us forever. At 27 and still maturing politically, I always found great joy in diving into the words of Mr. Buckley. There are few when it comes to politics that have handled the subject with such intelligence, class, and wit. It did not matter which side of the aisle one finds him or herself. Even when I did not agree, it was damn hard to disagree.
Today, the political spectrum seems poisoned to me. Various commentators on both sides are really dumbing down the issues to appeal to the mainstream. I find myself reading more and more of Buckley as this election year heats up. For nobody made a better case for the right and Mr. Buckley made it about being right and backed up his views better than anyone has.
When I read Miles Gone By I recall putting it down and thinking that Buckley lived his life the way we all should. He had the kinds of debates and conversations we all should have. He gave conservatism the kick it so needed and one we need even today. Nobody will ever replace him, but his words and his writings will always be there.
Gregory L. Vince, Lansdale, Pennsylvania 03/07 12:48 PM Indeed, We Have Lost a Giant Thinking back to when I was a boy in the sixties, I can remember the names and faces of only a few people that were on those boring TV political talk shows on Sundays. Back then I didn't know the first thing about politics and didn't care to learn. But there was one man, I remember thinking to myself, that seemed smarter than all the rest. That man, as I later learned, was William F. Buckley, Jr. It would be many years before I would understand breadth and scope of men like him and what value they had to our society. After I began listening to Rush in the early nineties, I started to understand who I was and what I believed about politics and world affairs. Rush helped me develop a framework within which I could better understand and communicate my own views on the issues. It was during that time that I finally began to understand and appreciate the many jewels of wisdom that had come from people like George Will and William F. Buckley, Jr. We have indeed lost a great giant from among us, one for which there can be no adequate replacement. We will certainly miss him! Thank you Mr. Buckley for all you were and all you did while here on this earth! May the great wisdom and insight you imparted carry on through us.
Mark Anders, Salisbury, NC 03/07 12:43 PM Thank You, Bill I only learned about National Review in 1970 when, as an 18-year old foreign student, I picked up my first copy of the magazine at Temple University’s library. Prior to that time, Time and Newsweek had been my window on America. NR’s founder, Bill Buckley, a quintessential American icon (little known outside of North America), opened up a new world to me that voiced thoughts and ideas I had always erroneously believed were somehow too indelicate for public discourse. Not only did he make the magazine an intellectual and eloquent forum for often-controversial conservative points-of-view, but he mixed the thoughtful discussion with the right amounts of levity, self-deprecation and, when necessary, biting sarcasm. Bill gave us strength when the days were dark and he cautioned us against unfounded exuberance during heady times.
As soon as I could scrounge up the money for a subscription, I stopped relying on the library copy and I’ve been a subscriber and fan ever since. Bill, we loved you in so many ways and, although you’re no longer with us, we hope you always knew that the “romance” would never end.
Neville Arjani 03/07 07:26 AM So Long, Friend Gstaad.....March 6, 2008
What can I say about Bill Buckley that hasn't been said.....better and/or more elequently?
So this becomes my junior high school term paper: What William F. Buckley, Jr. Meant to Me.
I have known him since I was about 7 years old....A very long time before he knew me. I was
so fascinated with this strange and wonderful creature on my TV set....His words, his voice,
his mannerisms....All so wonderful. I wondered, not just then but pretty much all these years,
"How did he GET that accent? Did the rest of his family speak like that? Did he speak like
that when he was a kid?; I mean when he was 7? I knew then, that I had to watch all and
any program on which this wonderful man would appear. The way he pronounced "Deim Bien
PHUUUUU", is still with me.
As I grew older, I realized that there was almost nothing about which we agreed and it didn't
matter because whatever he had to say was original and interesting. That I might ever have
the opportunity to actually meet him, was the farthest thing from my mind.
Then in 1995, I saw an ad in an issue of National Review, for a cruise on which would be several people with whom I'd love to mix it up; like Ralph Reed on abortion rights and Judge Robert Bork; also on abortion rights. But never did I plan to try to engage Mr. Buckley in a debate....more out of respect than intimidation. But what has happened over the past 13 years, is that I have become great friends with the National Review "Gang" and that included the Buckleys. And when I have had private time with them, we never got within arm's length of a political discussion. There always seemed to be more fun and interesting things to speak about.
I loved runing into Bill in the village of Gstaad, where we both had long histories. I visited with him and Pat, once, in their chalet and he was in my home for a National Review fundraiser. He sent me one of his more personal books and inside was a letter in which he called me a friend. That meant so much to me. This great treasure of a man called me his friend. Though I think of myself more as a fan, I will always be warmed by that letter; as well as my personal interactions with him and his signs of approval at something I said or did in his presence. I affectionatelly called him "The Buckmeister". One of those holdovers from the 70's. I like to think he didn't mind.
He used his intelligence to educate, never to intimidate. It really does not matter to me what his
political opinions were. The way he expressed them, as well as opinions on other subjects, was like listening to Pavarotti sing. The world beame a black hole for me, when we lost the great Pavarotti and now Bill Buckley....I wrote to him at Christmas; words of encouragement...He wrote back, a short but deeply touching note. I had no idea he was so ill, and now he's gone. But like Pavarotti, we have his art, well recorded, to enjoy and to treasure. It helps, me, at least, get through the pain.
Cat Jagger Pollon 03/06 08:58 AM The Time to Help a Father In Need I first learned of NR and Mr. Buckley from a friend while I was serving my second combat tour in Vietnam. I subscribed then and have been a devoted reader ever since even though some of my issues in those days and since have arrived a bit late and with a "previously read" look to them. In later years, as I became more and more concerned about my son, a Bay Area attorney, and his left leaning tendencies, I sought the advice of Mr. Buckley for some additional reading material that might stimulate at least a gentle turn to the
right. He suggested "Witness" by Whittaker Chambers. I gave the book to my son and it did, in fact, give a rightward nudge. I shall never forget the fact that Mr. Buckley took the time to help a father in need.
Richard H. Morton, Coronado, CA 03/05 11:57 AM He Did Not Just Write and Speak; He Acted Bill Buckley didn't just write and speak about conservative philosophy and causes. He also acted to advance them. One small piece of his immense legacy is his long and ultimately successful legal fight to free radio and TV commentators from forced union membership. As a then junior Staff Attorney at the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which provided Mr. Buckley's attorneys, I was proud to have played a small part in that important legal battle. And, it was, of course, his National Review that inspired me to get involved in the conservative movement as a college student in the early 1960s.
Raymond J. LaJeunesse, Jr., Vice President & Legal Director, National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation 03/05 11:44 AM Hospitable and Engaging When I read the newspaper commentaries about Mr. Buckley by different authors I was stuck by the similarity of their praises for this amazing man. Everyone, from David Brooks to myself were in awe not only of his brilliance but also by the gracious way he welcomed you into his rarefied world.
Two years ago I was producing an independent documentary about New York in the 1950s and early 1960s. I asked Mr. Buckley if he would be kind enough to let me interview him on camera for my film. My interview with him took place in his glamourous Manhattan home. By his hospitality and his engagement you would have thought I was Charlie Rose. After the interview I received a couple of letters from him in
response to mine. They were always mailed. I was delighted to receive them.
The fact that he took the time to jot off a few quick letters to me and sign them "warm regards" did much to encourage me in the documentary field. Even though I did not know him very well he made me feel as if I did. I will miss him.
Dore Hammond
03/05 11:40 AM A Mass for his Generous Multi-Talented Soul Many of your writers make mention of the opportunity they had to meet Mr. Buckley. I lost out in that regard. He was on a cruise ship to Nova Scotia that stopped in Halifax a few years ago. But I, an octogenarian, was recovering from bypass surgery. How pleased I was, however, to read in one of his columns a short time later this line saying, "with the posssible exception of New Zealanders, Nova Scotians are the nicest people on this earth". It went a long way to make up for missing the opportunity to shake his hand as he stepped off the cruise ship. I so wanted to express my profound gratitude for providing me, in my case, with about forty years of National Review. Among other things, he would send me scurrying to my dictionary to search for a certain word which I sometimes felt he, with his impish smile, put there just for me. What can I do in response to the so much that he has provided me? Well, I offered Mass for his generous, multi-talented soul this morning praying that he will sail smoothly into that world of eternal amazement. Msgr. John R. Campbell 03/05 11:35 AM A Conduit of the Love of God As other readers have noted, one cannot but help feel completely inadequate to the task of honoring this man at the time of his passing given his unsurpassed gift for doing the same for others.
Reading Mr. Buckley’s columns and books, and watching many hours of Firing Line (the interview with Malcolm Muggeridge being my all-time favorite having made a significant contribution to my spiritual journey) provided me with both pleasure and instruction; observing this man’s historic achievements and joyful humanity provided me with inspiration. I believe, as I know Mr. Buckley did, that the purpose of man is to glorify God. The light that shone from him was not simply one of intellectual brilliance but even more importantly was a reflection of his Lord, Jesus Christ. I have read all of the remembrances of his friends and family in these pages, as well as the ones of those, like me, who never met him but have found themselves mourning his passing these last few days. In all of these remembrances what most stands out is that the man was a conduit of the love of God – he loved his family, his friends, his country, his work and co-workers, and spread that love beyond to a circle larger than he could ever possibly know.
I will never meet him now except in eternity, but look forward to one day thanking him in person for brightening my life and the life of our nation and the world with his incomparable wit, wisdom, grace and charm. My heartfelt condolences go out to his family, his seemingly countless friends and his co-laborers at National Review. There will never be another like him, and I look forward to re-watching those Firing Line episodes with my own four children some day (how do I get DVDs?). I don’t think R.I.P. is the appropriate ending to this – I don’t imagine Mr. Buckley resting in eternity, I imagine him enjoying the eternal presence of God with unsurpassed zest. I’m planning to sail the celestial seas with him one day – now THAT will be a cruise! Godspeed, sir.
Dan Hoey 03/05 11:33 AM A Remarkable Man In late October 1970 the Conservative Party statewide ticket concluded its campaign at Sunnyside Gardens Arena, Queens. Led by James Buckley, the Conservative Party candidate for United States Senator, we appeared on a platform that was normally a prizefighting ring. A large crowd was jubilant and reflected the anticipation of the imminent election of James Buckley in one of the greatest political upsets in New York State history.
The candidate for Lieutenant Governor, who had labored over his speech for weeks, began to deliver it. Suddenly, Bill Buckley appeared at the back of the arena. The crowd roared. Lost was attention to the candidate's talk. Bill came down the center aisle to a thunderous ovation. He climbed up to the platform and shook hands with the candidates and party officials. Then he did something that movingly epitomized this gentle man.
He went to the back of the dais and sat next to the candidate whose speech he had inadvertently interrupted. For the rest of the evening he deferred to this man, discreetly seeking his opinion, sharing witticisms with him, etc. Few in the audience probably noticed this consummately gentlemanly gesture. It so personified Bill Buckley.
I was lucky to be in his company a number of times over the years, the last at the celebration of his 80th birthday at the Pierre in 2006. His son Christopher served as program emcee and did a marvelous job of setting the stage for the ebullient praise that flowed that evening.
Bill Buckley was a great man. When you met him you felt that your appearance had singularly brightened his day. To be in his company was to be reminded of Jacques Barzun's observation that: "The finest achievement of human society and its rarest pleasure is Conversation".
What a guy.
Anthony Spinelli 03/05 11:24 AM When Death Touches the Mighty It was with greater than expected grief that I heard the news of William F. Buckley, Jr.’s death. I did not know the man personally, and being only 25 years old, I was witness only to his twilight years in the public eye. However, whatever there was available of his wisdom, I consumed it eagerly.
To see the gradual decline of one’s parents and personal friends is one thing; their availability to us allows us to see them in times of both strength and weakness. But to see that death touches even the mightiest among us is a bitter blow to the illusion, however comforting, that this world is anything other than a place of passage.
Lawrence Hamtil, Leawood, Kansas 03/04 03:59 PM I Shared his Affection for this Great Nation It is said that one can attract more flies with honey than vinegar. Mr. Buckley demonstrated that truism consistently for over five decades. Witnessing the world's head-long, stubborn rush toward self-destruction can warp a conservative's soul, causing a tendency to express only a vinegarized call to sanity. W.F.B generously marinaded the truth in sweetness. He replaced a scowl with a self-assured twinkling eye and wit.
This next Summer I will turn 60. I remember when there were so very, very few sources of cultural and political sanity available. William F. Buckley, Firing Line and National Review regularly and generously provided an oasis of truth in a sea of cultural insanity.
I am a Baptist pastor. Mr. Buckley a committed Roman Catholic. I grew up a farmer's child in northern Iowa, he a son of privilege. Yet when he gave voice to the self-evident principles which he so consistently championed, I felt there was someone who could finally articulate the convictions I knew to be true as well. Other than both being Americans, we shared very little in common. I never had the privilege of personally meeting Mr. Buckley, but I felt our affection for this great nation and opposition to those who would undermine it made us brothers. Rest in peace, my friend.
Rev. Ken W. Lewis Trinity Baptist Church, St. Paul, MN 03/04 03:52 PM WFB: The Historian His literary talents were, of course, legendary. But one aspect of his writing career that has been neglected thus far is that of historian. I remember reading The Fall of the Berlin Wall, a slim volume detailing the history and lore of the wall, and being impressed by Mr. Buckley's memorable descriptions of personalities and events that would not have been out of place in a work by Edward Gibbon. This book kindled my enthusiasm for Cold War-related topics, and I was disappointed to find how bland other author's works were by comparison. It would be an interesting imaginative exercise to consider what classics would have been produced by William F. Buckley the historian. As in all his works, he set an unreasonably high standard to which other writers could only aspire.
Richard Spillane, Heathsville, VA 03/04 03:42 PM Proud to Inherit As an 18-year-old, I can't say I have many memories of WFB. I'll never know how profoundly he has affected my life, but I do know that he sparked a movement which my classmates at Hillsdale College and I are proud to inherit. May choirs of angels welcome him to paradise.
Anna Williams 03/04 03:41 PM He Was a True Gentleman I was introduced to Mr. Buckley when I was 16 years of age through a book my Republican father gave me for my birthday. The pages made for elegant reading and I think that I have read all of WFB's works of non-fiction. I learned much, pondered long, and in the end became an independent voter, affixed to no particular party.
But this I will say, Mr. Buckley was a true gentleman. He was kind and generous, and never once can I think of an incident where he was tempted to thoughtless mean spiritedness. He taught me to listen, to ask questions and to make up my own mind.
Yes, Mr. Buckley was a true gentleman and we need men and women of decorum in this world so often filled with haste and violence. I shall truly miss him and wish him God's peace and loving kindness. 03/04 03:40 PM Rest in Peace I had sincerely hoped both he and I would live forever. Him so he could write it, and me so I could read it. I, like many, will miss his writing, intellect and humor. Rest in Peace.
Mike Arnold 03/04 03:40 PM "I remember his ability to think on his feet." While others remember his wit and humor, his grace, his seemingly effortless fluency, I remember his ability to think on his feet, sum up a situation and deliver a knockout blow just as the opponent was finishing a specious argument.
I wish someone could find this video, because I gasped when I saw it live. Early eighties, WFB is on the Today show (I think) debating a Soviet apologist, Joe Adamov. (I understand he was a news commentator for Radio Moscow for years. I never listened to Radio Moscow, so I can’t say.) At any rate, to bolster his argument about how wonderful the Soviet system is, Adamov pointed to the sacrifices Russia made during WWII when about 20 million Russians died fighting the Nazis.
I can’t remember the exact phraseology, but Buckley’s reply went something like this: “The world appreciates the genuine bravery and the sacrifices made by the Russian people at that time. However, I submit to you that those 20 million dead were 20 million that Joseph Stalin did not have to kill in his purges.” 03/04 03:38 PM WFB and Alan Ginsburg I always loved Firing Line, especially because unlike any number of interviers (David Frost comes to mind), Buckley always remembered that he was not the star of the interview. He also had a great sense of humor. Once, when he had Alan Ginsburg on, Ginsburg started to do his Krishna chanting. Buckley, looking bemused, waited about 30 seconds, and then cautioned "Mr. Ginsburg, if you continue carrying on like this I may be forced to ask you to read some more of your poetry." Priceless.
Rich DiNardo 03/04 03:36 PM Thank You for Both the Challenge and the Guide I started reading National Review shortly after its first year of publication, and have been a steady subscriber since. WFB truly launched, with NR, the Conservative movement as a coherent voice in American (and world) politics. I have read most of what he wrote, watched Firing Line, and can only be grateful for his life and for what he left us with at his departure.
Several years ago he visited the Western Washington University campus, where I am on staff, as one in a series of "Distinguished Lecturers." He was, of course, the only conservative to appear in a progression of left and far-left speakers. His presentation, to a completely packed house, was vintage Buckley. But what I remember most was the manifest discomfort, nervousness and loss for words that our university president displayed while introducing him. His gallant and kind response conveyed volumes about him and "the movement," and I suspect successfully challenged the stereotypical image that many in the audience had about Buckley and conservatism. At the reception afterward I fulfilled my long-felt hope of meeting the man, found him to be as heartwarming and genuine in person as on the printed page or TV, and I treasure his autograph on my NR 1st Edition facsimile.
Thank you, Mr. Buckley, for what you did for us, for the challenges you have left us, and for the roadmap you have provided for us as we strive to deal with those challenges. RIP
Warren B. Howe, MD, Bellingham, WA
03/04 02:40 PM A Letter in My College Years I didn't have the opportunity to meet William F. Buckley, Jr., but in the late 1970s, when I was a college student, I received a letter from him. The occasion was the annual NR fund appeal. I wrote to Mr. Buckley and explained that I was a college student and could not afford to contribute, but expressed what the magazine meant to me. He wrote a letter to me. I have misplaced it, but it said something to the effect: "Never mind contributing to our deficiency. Take from National Review what you can; it is edited for the likes of you." What a kind man. We will miss him.
Judge David R. Duggan, Maryville, TN 03/04 02:37 PM A Few Memories Regarding the death of William F. Buckley, Jr., a few observations (sorry, couldn’t resist). They’re all personal—of his historical importance, I’ll just say that, as between him and Reagan on their importance to the good guys winning the Cold War and turning the tide against socialism-lite at home, I think it’s a close call.
1. Those whose deaths we grieve fall into three categories: immediate family, close friends, and people we have never met. John Donne to the contrary notwithstanding, think how few there are in that third category. There is no one in that category whose death I expect to feel more keenly, and I think that is true of many conservatives.
2. Particularly conservatives of a certain age. I’m 52. For someone like me, growing up in the 1960s, Buckley was the one and only. It is still the case that, when I write, and—especially—when I speak publicly, I think of him, and what he would do and say. It will always be that way.
3. John Miller and I have talked about this (he’s younger than I, though, I hasten to add). After John started to work at NR, I called him one day and asked him if he could arrange for me to meet WFB somehow. I wanted to shake his hand before … well, before what happened today happened. And so I did get to meet the great man and, of course, he was just as charming and gracious as everyone today says in his or her remembrance. 03/04 02:35 PM The Greatest Professor of All I am a 54 yr old Southern Baptist Preacher living just south of Camden,SC in Sumter. When my father died in 1994 he had all the back issues of NR, and he and I had read them all. My favorite way was to start at the back and read to the front. I have four earned degrees and have sat under professors from all the major universities, but WFB, Jr was the greatest professor of all. Without a doubt he will be remembered by history as one of the top 10 most influential persons of the 20th century. His two sailing books alone would rank him among our top English authors. He simply knew what he believed, why he believed it, and why his belief was the best response to all the evidence at hand. R.I.P. 03/04 02:32 PM Bush Remarked: "When he [Buckley] attended Yale he wrote a book. When I was there ... I read one." I remember watching the Al Smith Dinner on television in 2000. Al Gore and George W. Bush were both in attendance. Bush thanked WFB for the invitation and remarked: "When he [Buckley] attended Yale he wrote a book. When I was there ... I read one."
I never met WFB and I am the poorer for that. But his thoughts and works were so — everywhere — that I feel like I knew him a bit. I found an old copy of "God and Man at Yale" through Amazon a couple of years ago (price marked $3.50 on the tattered dust jacket) and I hoped that maybe somehow, some day I could get his autograph on it. It never happened of course but I still treasure the book for its content. From what I was able to learn about WFB through television, National Review, his newspaper columns (syndicated in the Chicago Daily News when I was in high school in the 60s), and his books he was just about everything good a person could be - smart, influential, religious, generous, deeply concerned about his country... I marvel at how blessed the good old USA is by the size of the Buckley family - a testament to his unselfishness nature among other things. A little of Bill lives on in his many children, grandchildren and siblings. We should surely thank God for that.
Edward J. Murphy, Chicago, Illinois 03/04 02:30 PM The Father of My Political Thought Thank you for giving me a forum to express my gratitude for the life of William F. Buckley, although I don't really know how I can express in words what he meant to me. With the exception of my father and my religion, the writings of WFB were the most influential in shaping my political thought. I can still recall the Christmas morning my father presented me with my subscription to National Review. I read it three times, I would read "From the Right" first, followed by his witty responses to those who wrote the letters to the editor. In order to avoid offending either my father or my father in law, I named my first born son after me, and then the father of my political thought (thus, Christopher Buckley Isaac)....I was too embarrassed to tell him that the day I met him at Harvard, but I wanted my son to understand where I was coming from, and I thought of no better way to do that than to remind him whenever he writes his name of his forbearers, both in body and in thought.
God Bless WFB...my best to his family.
Chris Isaac, San Diego 03/04 02:25 PM Continuing the Good Fight I was a freshman at Amherst College and found myself defending what I thought were our nation's basic tenets. A liberal friend of mine said, "You're just repeating what you read in National Review!" I thought, "This 'National Review' must be a wonderful magazine!" It was and is.
Thanks, Mr. Buckley, and thanks National Review for continuing to fight the good fight.
David F. Hubbard, Riverside, CA 03/04 02:20 PM An Inspiration to Live More Fully WFB’s death weighs heavily. The pleasure he brought us with his books, columns and television appearances is irreplaceable. From time to time when you would read about all he has done or was doing, it would provide a needed shot of inspiration to try to do more yourself: read more, ski more, live more.
An anecdote: In college at Notre Dame in the 80’s my roommate and I founded a conservative magazine. National Review, without any request or even any notice (at least from us), published a blurb on our magazine which not only helped our fundraising, but more importantly made us all feel great. I remember the faculty circulating the idea that WFB had spearheaded and funded this insurrection. I recall how comical we used to find that. But in retrospect, of course, the faculty were at least half right. Without WFB, we would never have worked so hard to accomplish what we did. While I never met or spoke to him, I will certainly miss WFB.
Ed Yevoli, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 03/03 11:43 AM In Memoriam How sad.
the passing of years see my heroes take their leave,
now William F. Buckley Jr. joins their rolls,
"a hero?" you ask,
"of course!" I reply,
the only man of substance,
other than Ronald Reagan,
who compelled a young man,
a nation,
fraught with insidious compunction,
to ascend summits insurmountable,
through sheer force of eloquence,
and intractable equanimity.
In Memoriam, Harry Vann Phillips, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Poet, Writer, Soldier (retired) 03/03 11:41 AM Contrast in Style Two interviews on Firing Line have always stuck in my mind. The first was with Howard Cossell. Mr. Buckley & Mr. Cossell kept elevating their vocabularies to levels that sent English professors reaching for their dictionaries.
The second was with Muhammad Ali. Mr. Buckley tried to put Mr. Ali at ease by using simple language. Mr. Buckley spoke with Mr. Ali, not to him or down to him.
The world has lost a most remarkable man.
Fred Calhoun 03/03 11:39 AM Hard to Imagine Another Like Him I’m 57, and first came across WFB when I was 14. The book was “The Jeweler’s Eye”, and it was instrumental in instilling two things in me: one, a love of language that has lasted all my life (I went on to become a language/linguistics teacher), and two, a BS Dectector. The BS Detector came into being by reading and listening to WFB. It enabled me early on to cut more quickly through the BS and get to the essence, be it Right, Left, or Center. To paraphrase Jay Nordlinger in his tribute on this website, he didn’t teach me WHAT to think, but rather HOW to think.
While an SDSer in the Sixties, I picked up “National Review”, and discovered, among others, Frank S. Meyer, Hugh Kenner, and Guy Davenport, who would become my long-distance mentor for nearly a decade.
It has only been in the past few years I have come to see how deeply I was influenced by this man, even though I didn’t share many of his ideas. I continued to read him, and when I needed to clarify some current political question, I’d go online to get his take on it.
I only met him once, c. 1971, after a speech he gave in California: a handshake, a book signed, and a “Good question, by the way”, refering to a question I had asked. Half a dozen letters: I have the impression that he answered every letter that he ever received.
It is hard to think of someone who has had this kind of influence in our time, and who touched so many people. And its even harder to imagine that we will see anyone like this in the future.
Richard Laubly, Paris, France 03/03 11:36 AM Fair Winds, WFB No one, perhaps, has had more influence on my social and political thinking than William F. Buckley, Jr.
Like others, I remember his robust command of the English language and rapier wit. I recall reading (ala Notes and Asides) a letter written by someone who was upset by something WFB had written and promised to never again touch an issue of “that bi-monthly rag”. Buckley replied that he resented his NR being called a bi-monthly rag….“it is a fortnightly rag”, he corrected. Touché.
There was, of course, National Review – and his spy novels and opinion columns – but the works I loved best were his sailing journals. In them, he seemed to present a sublime sense of the transcendental life of both ancient and eternal mariner.
When the history of our last century is definitively written, some ages hence, I believe it will record that the Tyranny of the Vicariously Compassionate was held at bay, in large measure, by the sheer will of this intellectual giant. Fair winds, WFB.
Charles Bryant, Tulsa, OK 03/03 11:28 AM A Steady Source of Inspiration Like any good soldier of a worthy cause, William F. Buckley, Jr. met his end at his post doing, to my mind, what good soldiers do: Championing his cause.
I first came to understand and appreciate the conservative view point by reading Buckley when I was in college. Looking back now, I chuckle at the change that I underwent as I watched, along with the rest of America, the undoing of the national economy and the quagmire we faced with the hostage situation in Iran. Toward the beginning of 1980 I had become a confirmed Reaganite and gloried in his victory over Jimmy Carter that November. The National Review has been a steady source of inspiration to me ever since. It is a thinking man's publication created by a thinking man. I can only hope that the people who contribute to it now and in the future will continue to keep it so.
Gil Davis, Smyrna, Georgia 03/03 11:26 AM A Better Conservative, a Better Catholic Bill, you are responsible for my love of Bach and his harpsichord works. You have made me a better Catholic, a better conservative, a better thinker, and a most importantly a better person.
Thank you for all you have meant to me and my family, We will miss you dearly, God bless you and your family.
Chris Jones, Winchester, MA 03/03 11:24 AM An American Original Upon learning of the passing of FDR, Winston Churchill remarked that Roosevelt had "died in harness". This was the first thought that came to my mind when I heard the sad news of WFB's passing: that he had died in harness, at his desk, no doubt pen in hand, formulating his unique prose that would leave me happily scrambling for my dictionary.
I will still look forward to each new issue of National Review gracing my mailbox; never in doubt as to the wit, style, and insight of its content. But something will be missing, and sadly it is irreplaceable. WFB was an American original and we are all the better for having known him, even the many of us who were never so fortunate as to meet him.
Ted Warren, Loudoun County, VA 03/02 10:25 PM He Served God Powerfully I met WFB twice in my life, in 1970 and 1983. A remark of his on the first occasion was formative for me. Asked during a conversation with a group of YAFfers to differentiate the possession of nuclear arms by the U.S.S.R. from the possession of nuclear arms by the U.S., he replied: "You can push an old woman into the path of an oncoming bus. Or you can push an old woman out of the path of an oncoming bus. In both cases you are Pushing an Old Woman." That remark, and so many others in his writings and on "Firing Line," taught me that expressing important truths baldly and simply is a great public service. Communists murder people. Statism, even short of Communism, is theft, poverty, slavery, and boredom. Freedom is good. WFB taught me where to look for justice and real progress—almost never to the state, always to what makes men free. A faithful Catholic, WFB served God powerfully by making the case for these truths in a century when few clerics could or would.
Fr. Vincent Fitzpatrick, Fargo, North Dakota 03/02 10:23 PM Inspiring Personality Many years ago, I had the privilege to meet Mr. William F. Buckley Jr. in person at Cuzco, Peru, during one of Mr. Buckley working journeys across South America. At the time I was editor of the town newspaper, not the best of times for practicing journalism in Peru. Day by day, we were suffering, the harassment of censors under a left-leaning military dictatorship. Mr. Buckley was full aware of this. His keen advice, encouragement, and inspiring character, became priceless to me, throughout those troubled hours. I shall remain forever grateful for his close involvement with my personal and professional pledge and shall never forget him.
My sincere condolences to his family and staff members of National Review. César Lomellini 03/02 10:18 PM A Legendary Intellect, the Kindest of Men I had written to Mr. Buckley several times over the years, and he graciously responded. One year, he invited me to a reception at his New York apartment. Despite the fact that I am no one from nowhere, he treated me as if I were at least as important as the other guests, all of whom were distinguished in a variety of fields. Millions realized that he was a legendary intellect; those who met him knew that he was one of the kindest men in the world. Even now, he and Mrs. Buckley are receiving the reward for thier goodness. For this, we rejoice and thank God for the gifts they were to us, but this world is impoverished by losing them.
Fr. James Patrick Galivan, Archdiocese of Chicago 03/02 10:15 PM A Remarkably Gracious Man It was the late 1960's and my parents were hosting a cocktail party at our home on Long Island for James Buckley, who was running for the State Senate of New York. Brother Bill was running late and everyone was abuzz with the anticipation of his arrival, which I caught on camera as he came dashing breathlessly down our driveway, scooting in the front door, through our house, and out onto the back porch to deliver his words on behalf of his brother. When the festivities were over, James Buckley had other promises to keep, but, wonder of wonders, Bill Buckley cheerily agreed to join us and several of my parents' friends at dinner. I was in my early 20's and thoroughly star-struck, having idolized William F. Buckley, Jr. since my high school days as a member of YAF. I never expected him to actually SPEAK to me, after all I was just the daughter and surely of no possible interest to him. I was fully prepared to hover somewhere in the background and worship from afar. And yet there he suddenly was, standing next to me, asking me about myself and about my fiancee who was in the Merchant Marine. Not only that, he was actually interested, kind, and attentive. I always wanted people to know that about him—that he was such a warm and friendly man, a man so gracious as to make me feel that, insignificant as I was, what I had to say was of acute interest to him.
Godspeed!
Beverly M. Squires 03/02 10:12 PM Buckley Over Coffee I always refer to that first cup-of-the-day as my matutinal coffee ever since WFB introduced me to that happy term many years ago. It’s one of those words that brings a smile.
Marguerite Duncan, Oregon 03/02 10:09 PM Made the Intellectual Supremely Enjoyable I can remember countless times coming to the end of a paragraph, page, or chapter in WFB’s writing and simply laughing out loud at the sheer genius of the content. A few times I even cried. But the mischievous, poignant, and almost artistic delivery gave me a surreal enjoyment not unlike the possibility of getting all one’s nutrients from chocolate mousse pie. Eagerly I would thumb back to the beginning and reread the same selection again as a child rushing back around to ride his favorite amusement park ride. Bill made the intellectual supremely enjoyable, impressing upon me the importance of literacy and western thought from a young age, and he helped me shape an internal framework of ideals rooted in individualism. I thank God for sending us this great and good man for such a time as was his. May we have the fortitude and presence of mind to continue in his legacy.
Jeff Bower 03/02 10:04 PM "He truly changed the world for the better and did it with such joyful zest." When I look at the accomplishments of William F. Buckley, I feel as significant as a gnat. How could one man accomplish so much? He truly changed the world for the better and did it with such joyful zest. His generosity and kindness are mentioned by all who knew him. His is a perfect example of a life well-lived. We owe him so much. There will never be another like him. Rest in peace, Mr. Buckley.
Rob Lipsey, Brownsburg, IN 03/02 10:01 PM A Magnanimous and Erudite Man Deepest condolences to you and God Bless Bill Buckley for a life robustly lived. I had the good fortune to be in his presence back in 2002 at a fundraiser for Father George Rutler’s parish, it was clear to me that he was both a magnanimous and erudite man who I wish I would have had the opportunity to know much better.
A brief WFB anecdote- At that fundraiser for the Church of our Savior (Larry Kudlow was also in attendance), Father Rutler introduced Mr. Buckley to the assembled guests, paying the highest possible praise one could actually bequeath to a man, even going so far to say that we should carve the image and likeness of WFB into Mount Rushmore. WFB returned the compliment to Fr. Rutler by deadpanning that one of Father Rutler’s greatest gifts was his penchant for hyperbole- it was a vintage good-natured WFB rebuttal.
WFB’s legacy is an enormous one, and we must carry forth the principles and precepts that he rescued out of the darkness. May National Review continue on as the conservative movement’s beacon, and may the memory of Bill’s lust for life remind us how we should go about our days on earth- with great joy and aplomb.
Vince Mariano, Boca Raton, FL 03/02 10:00 PM A Favorite WFB story... ...is about the waiter who complained to him about using big words in National Review. He saw the waiter again about a year later, who asked "How come you stopped using all the big words?" Of course, WFB explained, no such thing had occurred — it was simply that the waiter's vocabulary had vastly expanded from the year's reading. 03/02 09:58 PM He Gave Mobility to the Conservative Movement My admiration of Bill Buckley began in the 1960s when, as a grad student, I joined YAF and ISI and began subscribing to NR. Soon, I was watching Firing Line on a regular basis, and I noticed that when he was about to make a telling point in his debate with an opponent, he would adopt a wry smile and have a sparkle in his eyes. I will always picture him that way.
I had been a conservative long before I became aware of WFB, but he made it possible for conservatives to become acquainted and mobilized. I still am a member of ISI, and the last time I saw him in person was at the 50th Anniversary celebration of that organization.
His influence will be felt for generations to come.
A mighty oak has fallen. My condolences to his family and to the staff of National Review.
Byron C. Hall, Jr., Centerville, Ohio
03/02 09:57 PM Glimpse of a Fine Mind My first encounter with Mr. Buckley (I could never quite bring myself to call him "Bill" despite his polite suggestions; kind of like calling God, as some people do, "The Big Guy"), was on 24 June 1986 at the celebration of the publication of Christopher's first book "The White House Mess". I was 3 years out of St. John's Law School and an anomaly of different sorts. Indeed, my avid conservatism was frequently at odds with every attorney with whom I merely discussed current events to the point where it was actually imperiling my employment. If I recall correctly, the soiree was organized by the N.Y. Conservative Party of which I was a gleeful new member. Mr. Buckley arrived at the hotel dining room with his ubiquitous clipboard sans implement. I timely offered him mine as I was in close proximity, having inched closer and closer to be in his aura and perhaps hear what he was saying privately to the partisans. He noticeably balked when he noticed that it was a Cross pen and started to refuse it on the ground that it was much too valuable a risk. I was saddened knowing that I would have given it to him for posterity without him even having to ask. But upon my rejoinder he used it for the evening at the end of which he placed it inside his jacket or the top of the clipboard, I forget which. There was absolutely no way that I was going to ask for the return of the pen even though it was always dear to me and now was destined to be a keepsake. Christopher actually reminded him to return it which permitted me an opportunity to engage Mr. Buckley one on one in some routine conversational pleasantries about pens, lawyers, French wines, and the Metro-North schedule (I was living on East 50 Street about 5 doors west of Lutece and hadn't the foggiest idea of the latter).
About three years later I finally got to the head of a long line at a book signing at a Lower Broadway bookstore for "On the Firing Line". I handed Mr. Buckley my Cross pen to use to sign the inside of the front cover. He looked at it, then at me, and with a knowing smile, said "So, I see you're still carrying this valuable pen!" I was speechless, having resolved earlier in the afternoon not to even attempt the foolhardy notion of reminding him of our first encounter. It was then that I discovered a little something of the foundation of the magnificent mind with which God had blessed him.
Charles J. Jannace III, Salisbury, MD 03/02 09:55 PM Nearer than Ever Before He was great not only for how he changed the nation and even the world for the better, but also for how many individuals were changed for the better as well.
The year was 1987 and I was a sophomore in high school in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. Somehow I happened to watch an episode of Firing Line and was introduced to the world of WFB. The school library had been stocked in the ‘70’s and included Inveighing We Will Go. From that I became aware of National Review. With neither the school nor the town library subscribing to it how was one to even find the address, in that pre-internet age, of the subscription office? I sent a stamped envelope, with a note asking for a subscription card for National Review, to the address given for transcripts at the end of each Firing Line and hoped for the best. There was no reason to suspect that whoever mailed out transcripts had anything to do with National Review, but some kind soul sent back a precious business reply card. After mowing the neighbor’s yard several times for some money, the card was put to good use.
That was more than half a life time ago, and how blessed I was to have chanced upon WFB. It was only a week ago that I finished reading Nearer, My God for the first time. No doubt he is now more than near.
David Lewis 03/02 09:52 PM Inspired to Serve It is especially touching to me that William F. Buckley's passing should come while I was serving in Iraq. My being here is in great measure because of inspiration I received from his philosophy and vision of the God-given right to liberty, and the understanding of America's role in the world. It restored my confidence in America, delivered with clarity and sense of mission. One of his many life's works, National Review, has become an inspiring part of my life. I will sincerely miss his "On the Right" column, which was a warm and sensible review of the most important issues. Rest in peace, Mr. Buckley.
Hugh M. Nelson 03/02 09:48 PM Memory from His Final NR Cruise It was with a profound sense of loss and sadness that I read of William F. Buckley's death on Wednesday morning.
I thought to myself, why such sorrow for someone I hardly knew personally? From the many condolences and thoughts that have poured forth the last three days the reason became clearer — still difficult to express, but clearer. It was his passion for right ideas, the English language, and freedom manifested in a defense of limited government and the free market. But it also was his personal qualities — his intellect, energy, accomplishment, grace, humility, wit, generosity, and his ability to make friends and be a friend, the latter of which were legendary. It is rare indeed for all of those qualities to exist in one person.
My first encounter with WFB was when I was about 12 years old (circa 1970). I walked into our living room on a Saturday afternoon while my dad was watching Firing Line, and there on the screen was this man with a clipboard and pen in his hands, rumpled hair, and a very narrow (early 1960's style) necktie, sort of cockeyed. [Remember, by 1970 ties had become very wide and garish.] I asked, "Who is that?" to which my dad replied, "That's William F. Buckley, the conservative columnist." I thought to myself, "Oh, so
that's how you can tell he's a conservative — he's wearing that really skinny tie." Well, I sat down and listened and started to understand what "conservative" really meant. Over the next formative years I read his column and watched some Firing Lines and learned a few big words and a lot of big ideas. During my surgical residency in the mid- to late 1980's I would hurry home from Saturday morning conference and rounds to join my wife in watching — in Fred Friendly's terms — that "overeducated, overachieving swashbuckling dude sling poison arrows at his guests" on Firing Line. Then, almost 20 years ago, we started subscribing to National Review. We suspected it would be good, but what we didn't expect was the caliber of the writing on a wide range of topics, not merely on politics and economics. It became our guide to books, art, music, and film. Plus, it was very funny. This was all under the leadership of a remarkable editor who set the tone for the whole enterprise...he knew there was more to conservatism than politics and economics and he knew that humor was a key ingredient. Through the years I sent him an occasional letter about a topic of interest and he always replied (a common experience, from reading the tributes by other NR readers). It was our privilege to sail with Mr. Buckley on what appears to have been his final NR cruise in November of 2006. We had settled in to our stateroom and when we walked out the door the only person in the hallway was WFB himself, in his yachting cap, lost and looking for his room. We were struck by how tall he was and, sadly, that he was looking old (he was 80). We pointed him in the right direction and then introduced ourselves. He introduced himself (as if that were necessary). The next morning, we tried to find open seats on the main level of the auditorium for the first panel discussion but none were to be had, so we walked upstairs to the balcony. WFB was sitting up there, saw us walk in, and motioned for us to come sit
with him. As he did so he said, "Come on up here...Chad." How did he remember my name from that brief introduction the evening before? We sat there with him and listened to the speakers and exchanged some remarks. It was like sitting with your dad. It was wonderful merely to be in his company. We feel as if we have lost a close friend. My wife, Kim joins me in extending our condolences to Christopher, the entire Buckley family, and the National Review family for their loss. May the Lord give eternal rest to this great man.
Chad Davis, Indianapolis, Indiana 03/02 09:46 PM From a Godson A strange twist of fate gave me the immense fortune to have had William F. Buckley as my Godfather. On the day I was Christened in Vancouver, Canada the Godfather who had been chosen by my mother fell suddenly ill. Not wanting to alter the plans (or a good party) my mother put out a house to house search for another unsuspecting Catholic sucker. Pat Buckley was a very old friend of our family and was in Vancouver with Bill visiting her family. He stepped, unwillingly I suspect, but with grace into the role of Godfather and for many years never forgot a birthday.
He was always so generous to me when I came to visit in New York and Connecticut and Switzerland. I will cherish the evenings listening to him playing the harpsichord and giving me advice or more importantly taking an interest in my life.
While at University in California, I asked Bill if he would come and speak about Conservatism to the College. He agreed and I had the great honour to introduce him in front of the congregation of students an a throng of local Conservatives. I still have a copy of my introduction which I delivered whilst trembling in his greatness.
Sadly, we lost touch during the 1990s when I moved to Europe and it seemed every time I was in New York on business he was travelling.
I shall count my fortune, however to have seen him last October on a trip to New York. I rang his office at short notice and invited him to join me for lunch. Less than an hour later his office called and said he was coming into New York to see me and wanted to take me to my beloved New York Yacht Club for lunch. Even though he was very sick he made the effort to see me which I will never forget. We spoke and laughed for an hour and a half about everything from sailing to his planned book on Ronnie Reagan. I will cherish that hour and a half forever.
My sincere condolences to Chisto, all the NR staff who he adored and all Conservatives worldwide who have been so fortunate to have made his association. A great loss to us all.
Bill if you get this message please give Aunt Pat a kiss for me.
Mark MacLean 03/02 09:38 PM A Genuine Care for People Bill had a heart for people and the gift of making and keeping friends. I was privileged that he called me a friend from the early 1970's on.
He had a genuine care for people–and the personal humility that made that possible. He never acted as though he were someone special. He acted as though you were someone special. He treated a young, idealist nobody from Oregon as though I was special. Here's a bit from one of his letters to me:
I spent an evening and a day with Malcolm [Muggeridge] as recently as last December, and think him very special.
He is coming to New York to do a Firing Line with me in a couple of weeks. It pleases me hugely that he thinks well of me, though no more than it pleases me that you do. (April 27, 1979)
Bill consistently encouraged me in my faith and desire to serve the Lord. He even offered to write a letter of recommendation for me to a graduate program in theology at a top evangelical school. I took him up on it, and one of my treasured possessions is the copy he sent me of that recommendation.
His passing is a loss to the nation, his family, friends and admirers, and to me. I loved Bill Buckley.
C. S. Lewis once wrote that the passing of a friend is a bit like losing a leg. It may not hurt so much after the amputation, but no more mountain walks. I'm already missing those mountain walks.
Terri Williams
03/02 09:36 PM A Well Rounded Example Mr. Buckley's life reinforced the goal I have to raise well rounded children. Faith, service, intelligence, patience, wit, and a large appetite for a life fully lived. Thank you for the example my children will one day learn of.
David Rose, St. Louis, MO 03/02 09:30 PM An Example for the Generations I grew up an old school Catholic Democrat, one of seven kids, whose family was really conservative but did not know it. National Review and his books helped shaped my feelings into a political philosophy in my young twenties, and i came to marvel of WFB's intellect, stories, and magazine.
Although my dream of attending an NR cruise with WFB won't materialize, my 8 year old son and I will one day read National Review together, as well as watch archived episodes of Firing Line online, so that he can "meet" this great influence on my life.
Joe Malvezzi, Austin Tx 03/02 09:21 PM A Beacon of Sanity When I was a young man growing up in Massachusetts during the seventies, WFB was a beacon of sanity and hope in a world of socialism and nihlism. I remember watching him on Firing Line, which then led me to subscribe to The National Review. He introduced me to the wonderful world of conservatism and helped give me the intellectual tools to understand the liberal dogma and mindset that ruled my world back in the day. I was then fortunate enough to meet Ronald Reagan in 1980 and things only got better. I never met WFB but I already miss him terribly.
I have been explaing to friends for the past few days what a tremendous man WFB was. There were many nights that I read WFB's books during quiet times-I just finished Nearer to God. His faith was inspiring.
God bless you Mr. Buckley. I have no doubt that you are with the Lord and I hope that we can all meet someday in God's mansion that has many rooms.
John R. Teixeira, Charlottesville, Va. 03/02 09:12 PM An Invaluable Movement My first rememberences are, as many, with Firing Line. I then subscribed to National Review sometime in the early eighties with no real thought of participating in the political process. For some reason, I have never been able to throw away a single issue for the last twenty plus years, a fun fact to share with my left-leaning legislative colleagues. The movement he spawned keeps me on track, and each issue of NR feels like coming home. Senator Eugene S. Clarke, Mississippi State Senate, District 22 03/02 09:07 PM A Summer with NR I first picked up National Review at the age of 16 and haven’t looked back since. In those days, there was nothing – and I mean nothing – that presented a coherent conservative point of view on contemporary events, certainly not one with wit and panache. Bill Buckley changed all that, gave us a voice, started a movement, and changed the world. Fortunately, I also got to know the great man personally, for I was National Review’s summer editorial assistant after my junior year in college, in the summer of 1972. I did gopher work, helped put the magazine together, drafted short editorials, and, most important, attended all of the editorial sessions. Buckley poured the coffee for everyone, and, after Bill Rusher summarized the (always precarious) financial state of the enterprise, presided over what pieces to run and what editorials to write. He parceled them out to everyone, including me, and we scurried away to start drafting. Not much of my drafts made it past Bill’s famous red pen, but I didn’t mind. We were The Change, The Movement, and we knew it. We will never see the likes of Bill Buckley again. R.I.P.
David Condit, McLean, Virginia 03/02 08:59 PM A Goodly Heritage Mr. Buckley was in every sense my political tutor and mentor, that is if one can call someone with whom one has no personal relationship in the physically present sense a mentor.
At at time when girls my age were "gaga" over Donny Osmond, I had what can only be described as a crush on Mr. Buckley and turned down dates in those pre-VCR, pre-TIVO days to watch Firing Line. His reading list became my reading list, and I was educated. Through him I was introduced to Whittaker Chambers, Hayek, Malcolm Muggeridge, Dorothy Sayers and a host of others. Indeed, my marriage is connected to Bill Buckley—he was at the University of South Carolina for a Firing Line program (a "Star Wars" debate panel); a young man I was dating knew me to be a fan and managed through connections and sheer audaciousness to smuggle me into the invitation-only reception afterward. He buttonholed Mr. Buckley for me as he was slipping out. Notwithstanding what must have been an unwelcome detour, Mr. Buckley was unfailingly gracious, brightening as I avoided the debate topic and chatted instead about Blackford Oakes. He gave every indication, from the time spent conversing and the attention he bestowed, that the diversion was not only not unwelcome but pleasant. The young man's actions that night so raised him in my estimation we engaged not long after. One of my treasured birthday gifts from this husband is a Buckley campaign pin from his New York mayoral campaign and an excellent copy of The Unmaking of a Mayor.
My condolences to his family and those privileged to know him personally. (And I trust they do not find it presumptuous of those of us who did not know him as they did to express such keen senses of connection and profound sense of loss.) Surely Psalm 16:6 captures his life: "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage." And for those of us who have access to his work, we have a goodly heritage as well.
Nancy Barkman Rights 03/02 07:36 PM Wonderful Humor, Flashing Insight As a teen in the mid-1980s, I wanted to meet and visit with WFB more than any man on earth, living or dead. It was his genius and sensibility. It was his understanding of human nature and the human condition. It was his understanding that to destroy and distort and prevent and take is so much easier than to create and build and allow and give. That's why he and I hated the Communists and why we love Liberty and are true to her. My mother met him at after a speech in about 1990 and held forth my 10 year old brother, saying, "he's a big fan!" to which WFB said - and picture his wry face and toothy grin - "What about you?" She adored him, her modest cover blown.
He is the ultimate voice of personal responsibility, of the depth and art of meaningful morality - sometimes gray but often black and white, and he expressed the difference superbly - and of wonderful humor and flashing insight.
On a scale of 100 for sheer uniqueness, meaningful charisma and contribution to what the classical liberal thinkers and Founding Fathers started, which is only the most important codification of ideas man has ever wrought, WFB was a 99.5. We have to assume that in Bill's world, perfection is reserved for the afterlife.
H.B. Neel, Rochester, MN 03/02 07:33 PM Basic Buckley I write to lament the passing of William F. Buckley.
For hundreds of thousands of young as well as older Americans during the difficult years of the cold war and neo-liberalism, Bill Buckley showed everyone what conservatism is. He not only demonstrated its intellectual basis but also built practical outlets to the philosophy itself, first via his book God and Man at Yale, then by the magazine National Review and then the hit series, Firing Line on television. As a fourteen year old I knew there just had to be more to "politics" than the evening news. One night I discovered Firing Line. I was mesmerized and never missed the program for perhaps a decade. I would often order the transcript of the shows to study the point-counterpoint exchanges. Soon I discovered that the strange speaking Yankee who was so very, very logical also had a magazine. In college, whenever National Review arrived, I would immediately spend the next two hours intently analyzing it.
Buckley founded Young Americans for Freedom (YAF). During the Vietnam War, I became a chapter chairman while a student at UNC Charlotte. One of my life's highlights was attending the tenth anniversary of YAF at Buckley's home in Sharon, Connecticut.
Because of Bill Buckley, most of the conservative movement is conscious of the distinction between traditional conservatism and libertarianism. Buckley was basically a fusionist who understood the Burkian foundations of contemporary conservatism.
There are hundreds of Buckley quotes. One, where I think he quotes another in defining conservatism, is: "Conservatism is the paradigm of essences towards which the phenomenology of the world is in continuing approximation." It is humorous but expresses the traditionalist view of conservatism's basic grasp of Truth and how Truth will triumph ultimately.
Every time I am fortunate enough to speak to groups of young people I emphasize a Buckley truth: You must develop an understanding of your own political philosophy. Conservatism correctly understood, emphasizes individual human freedom while balancing the cultural norms of family, faith and governmental structures in tension with that freedom. The emasculation of freedom in an effort to "help" everyone is Federalism gone awry and is the error of liberalism. The emasculation of the cultural norms is an effort to deify freedom and is the error of libertarianism. To hold the balance as the "essence" which will prevail is a belief that God will direct the course of human endeavor to a righteous conclusion and is the conservative merger of philosophy into faith, thus eschatological in its outcome.
Basic Buckley.
He, himself, said we stand on the shoulders of giants. Now that he is gone, it will be ever more clear that William Buckley is one of the greatest of the giants.
David L. Thomas 03/02 07:10 PM This Was a Man I would like to express my profound grief and my sincere condolences to the Buckley family and to all at National Review on the loss of William F. Buckley. In this age in which we suffer from a dearth of heroes, I’ve had few beyond my own father. One was Mr. Buckley. I’ve read his magazine. I’ve read his books. I’ve watched his show. I’ve learned from them all. His wit, wisdom, and intelligence were inspirational. He made one proud to be a conservative. I’ve also watched how he lived life. Perhaps I learned the most from that. When my father died, we incorporated this quote into his eulogy for the words seemed to sum up my father’s life: “His life was gentle; and the elements so mixed in him that Nature might stand up and say to all the world, This was a man!” (Act V, Scene V Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar) Mark Anthony was speaking of the death of Brutus—“the noblest Roman of them all.” Although it is not a perfect analogy, I believe these words are also an apt eulogy for Mr. Buckley.
May God welcome him into heaven with a “Well done, good and faithful servant.” and may he rest in peace having earned our love, admiration and gratitude for a life well lived.
Kathleen Houlahan 03/02 07:04 PM A Sad Loss With Mr. Buckley's passing, I lost a man intelligent enough to articulate ideas and ideals I only felt; passionate enough to engage the public; and, witty enough to make us all smile.
Russ Winstanley, Roanoke, VA 03/02 07:01 PM Cordially, WFB -- God rest his immortal soul. Men, born in faith, will still persistently seek out separate proofs of what they already know to be the truth. This is not done for any reason but to continually reinforce what is already written on their hearts — lest they fall into despair. In the late 1970’s examples of the truth were in short supply, especially in New York City — at least I thought they were. Then one Sunday, after Mass, switching the channels (we only had six) I stopped on Channel 13. That is where William F. Buckley reconciled the truth of faith — a gift of God — with the truth of living politics: Conservatism. I soon found out that there was a companion piece to this intellectual theater called Firing Line, it was called National Review and it was the printed version of the political truth; the bible of conservatism. Just like on Sunday afternoon, where the good guy, dressed in his comfortably rumpled Brooks Brothers, holding his clipboard, always triumphed over Gailbraith, Schlesinger, Kinsley et al — because he was armed in the truth; every two weeks I received everything I already knew deep in my soul about the subjects of our time except they were expressed in genius and packaged in wit and again buttressed by certainty.
I suppose I am one of the millions who were intellectually, politically and socially shaped by WFB. The one thing in common that all his admirers have is that WFB made us all want to be better communicators in the world of ideas. I am not famous or wealthy or even distinctive in any great manner. But, I am a better citizen thanks to WFB and because I am a better citizen we are a better country and because we are a better country it is a better world.
The coda of what he has meant to me can be summarized by two separate yet interrelated certainties that WFB brought to me. By gazing at a child’s ear you can prove the existence of God and that nothing is learned in life except through suffering. Thank you WFB may you rest in peace. 03/02 06:59 PM A Sentiment Understood Every Christmas I read the Dulce Domum chapter of the Wind in the Willows for my children. I do it to remind them of the meaning of home, frendship, and celebration.
In the story, Mole and Ratty are trudging across winter fields when Mole catches the scent of his former home... long forgotten and suddenly remembered.
"Poor Mole stood alone in the road, his heart torn asunder, a big sob gathering somewhere low down inside him, to leap up to the surface presently... Recollection brought fresh waves of sorrow, and sobs again took full charge of him, preventing further speech."
Now, I finally know how Mole felt on gaining the vision of his loss... we will miss Mr. Buckley so...
Richard Crispin, Louisville, Kentucky
03/02 06:53 PM An Intellectual Cary Grant In thinking of this great man, I can only paraphrase Billy Wilder on the death of Cary Grant: "We have lost the standard. Whom can we emulate now?"
Paul McGoran 03/02 06:51 PM He Took a Chance on a Williams Man Viewing and anticipating the eloquence that is coming forth upon the passing of WFB, I would humbly add a brief story of how he took a chance on one who was of average talents.
I was living at home in Los Angeles, having been a reporter for two tiny newspapers on opposite coasts. I'd grown up in a loving though sadly liberal household, had a keen though unformed sense of political ideology at a young age, became an NR reader while in high school and a right-thinking campus scold — and author of several NR pieces — while in college. WFB was a natural hero, as he was to a lot of guys I knew during those days and indeed, he had several relatives at my school. On a whim, I wrote him a letter, enclosing clippings, and noted that while I wasn't a supercharged intellect, I got things done. One May day in 1983, the phone rang my house. And it was WFB. He had a small project that needed sheparding and he asked if I'd like to take the post. Fully aware of the reigning ethos at my alma mater (despite my best attempts to change it), WFB said, in that unique lilt, "Of course, you can ascertain I'm taking a chance on a Williams man."
He took the chance, I did the project, which later became a book — "Right Minds: A Sourcebook of American Conservative Thought," polished and completed by a much abler mind than mine. WFB's ensuing letter of recommendation was solid gold in two my gaining newspaper jobs as an editorial writer at medium-sized papers (at the young age of 26, no less), and then when I sought work on Capitol Hill. In fact, the imprimatur of NR and of WFB has never left my career — it is the post of which I am most proud, and which entertains the most attention from others.
A post in the Bush 41 State Department during the end of the Cold War that my wise Williams professors predicted would go to the other team, 11 years on the Hill, and now a a post in Bush 43. As then as now: I didn't have the guns to succeed in the literary arena, among the battalions of solid writers that emerged from NR. So I've mildly thrived in the political arena. None of this would have occurred without WFB taking a chance back in May of 1983. The soaring testimonials will roll in from people of huge stature, but WFB is testament to a graciousness and kindness that touched even those who were just average. Jeff Nelligan (NR, 1984-85) 03/02 06:51 PM From a Mother of Three As a very young mother of 3 small children with little adult contact during my day; Mr. Buckley’s columns in the morning paper gave voice to what I felt and could not articulate. Certainly, not as he did. I would read his column with a dictionary at my side. The columns led me to his books, and those of many others. I will never forget reading “Witness”, while changing diapers, cooking dinner, and cleaning up children’s messes, with the book in my hand and tears in my eyes. And, the Blackford Oakes books, how great! I’ve never been sailing, but I know about it because of his books. I learned so much from the books and his columns. They were my “continuing education”.
In the many years since, I have been active in political campaigns, served on state party committees and supported every true conservative I can find. I have been active in my church when it was sometimes difficult. In large part, it is because of the inspiration of this amazing man. I actually was watching when he was called a “crypto Nazi” by Gore Vidal. I will never forget his reaction. He was always able to skewer his opponents with his intellect and his wit, and rarely anger.
We are blessed that he was in this world and he will be greatly missed. May the good God comfort his family and friends.
Carolyn Ledet 03/02 06:49 PM "I saw, every single day, what the world would be like, if we did not have the influence of William F. Buckley." I always felt like an instinctive conservative, even as a child during the 60s. My parents were instinctive liberals, but I just felt they were wrong. I had no intellectual basis at the time, unsurprising given my youth and adolescence. My conservative instincts were confirmed in 1979, when I watched Ronald Reagan's "A Time for Choosing" speech. But my conservatism was still an instinctual thing, uneducated, ill-formed. I was passionate in my convictions, but could not evangelize, lacking the intellectual discipline and clueless about where to find such an education.
Then, while serving in Germany, as a young cavalry officer, patrolling the frontier of freedom on the East German border, personally confronting the barbarity of communism, I discovered National Review magazine. And my conservative instincts found their voice!
Reason, wit, clarity, temperament...all of it flowing from the fount of wisdom with the name "William F. Buckley" at the masthead. I would take my current copies into the field with me, as we maneuvered across the German countryside. I often would read it by flashlight, or in the red-lights of a darkened gunnery tower. I was amazed at how much there was to learn. What a great professor I had in William F. Buckley, and his contributors to the National Review. Suddenly, and gradually as it were, I became powerful, combining my youthful instincts with education in the conservative arts, thanks to Professor Buckley, and his disciples.
I saw, every single day, what the world would be like, if we did not have the influence of William F. Buckley. I saw every day, the outcomes of the force of history that he stood athwart, shouting "Stop!" I needed no further evidence
I am deeply saddened by his passing, as I was with the death of President Reagan. It strikes me personally, though I have never met either of them. As if I had lost a grandfather, a mentor, a friend. There will never be another like either of them. They are laughing together at this moment.
David W. Parmly, Knoxville, TN 03/02 06:47 PM From a Faraway Country In 1965 I discovered that the U.S. Embassy in Prague, then communist Czechoslovakia, ran a small library with books and magazines. It was open to the public. There I discovered the NR and in no time I was captivated by WFB´s contributions. He helped me tremendously in my formative years to grasp clearly the principles I had known deep down to be true without realizing that. I had not kept that knowledge to myself in later years and in this way WFB has influenced developments in my country. Using R.Kirk´s words – he is a giant on whose shoulders many stand and will stand.
Pavel Bratinka, Czech Republic 03/01 01:30 PM A National Review Memory In 1999 I was walking through the NATO base at Sarajevo airport, a copy of my latest National Review visible through the mesh of my laundry bag. Halfway across the motor pool a Marine Captain shouted at me to hold up. He wanted to know where I had gotten the latest NR (mailed from home) and what I thought of "Mr Buckley's magazine ." We had a brief but pleasant conversation about what Buckley and NR meant to our intellectual lives and then duty called us both away. I never saw him again but I often pause to remember that even in that far-flung city, two of WFB's fans could cross paths.
God Bless you Mr. Buckley and may Our Lady extend her hand to you.
Timothy Ahonen 03/01 01:29 PM "His Memory Will Long Endure" To many of us who grew up in the 60s and 70s, Bill Buckley was one of our intellectual fathers. He gave voice to a conservatism we could only feel and thus gave us the intellectual heft to challenge the current wisdom. Speaking for myself, I can not imagine the world without Mr. Buckley's unique brand of wisdom; a combination of intellect, erudition and wit. While I will miss his voice my deepest condolences go out to the Buckley family. His memory will long endure.
Alan Weick 03/01 01:23 PM A Handful of Fond Memories I only met Bill Buckley a couple of times, and briefly, but I have saved the nice complimentary little notes he sent me every time he published one of my articles. After the New York Times fired me in early 1979 for my foolish insistence that the Soviet Union would soon invade Afghanistan and the Afghans would resist, only National Review took my predictions seriously and published them — uncut, unaltered, and without caveats. I had never read the magazine and turned to it in desperation — and found respect, welcome. And intellectual sustenance ever since.
Coming from the Midwest, I'm sure that I'm only one of a multitude who were not political thinkers, just were basic American conservatives — but didn't know it, or understand why, until Bill Buckley cheerfully, and with a glint of mischief, made us aware of it.
My condolences to Christopher, whom I also knew slightly long ago; to Priscilla Buckley, who was so helpful to me; and to the National Review staff to whom I can only say, urgently, "Carry on."
Rosanne Klass . 03/01 01:21 PM Blessed to be His Contemporary I can only echo the many eloquent expressions of loss, grief, and deep admiration that precede mine. William F. Buckley was a man for the ages. How fortunate we have been to be his contemporaries. I have listened to him in rapt amazement countless times on Firing Line and several lectures in person, read his books and devoured National Review for half a century but one brief face-to-face encounter at a thank-you reception for workers in his brother Jim's senatorial campaign comes to mind with a smile. I offered the view that Ronald Reagan's critics invariably groused that he owed his political success to his acting background or they belittled him as a B-actor. It seemed to me they couldn't have it both ways, the presidency of the United States being the hardest job in the world to attain. Mr. Buckley's quick answer: Did you hear his response when someone told him Bedtime for Bonzo was to be on TV that night - "I think I'll ask for equal time." Can't you just hear the hearty laughter of these two great friends?
Helen Wildermuth, East Lyme, Connecticut 03/01 01:18 PM Heaven's Lively New Resident William F. Buckley was a towering individual who used his extensive gifts to make the world a better place. I began reading his newspaper columns regularly when I was a senior in high school. From the moment I began, I was instantly captivated by Mr. Buckley's breadth of knowledge, his felicity of expression, and his deeply held convictions. Soon I sought him out in his other prime elements — books, essays, television, or wherever else he cared to grace our society with his elegant words of wisdom. No matter the venue, Mr. Buckley never failed to stimulate my interest and to do so with exceptional good humor and style.
Mr. Buckley performed an astounding feat by transforming American conservatism from a marginal philosophy to a powerful force for new ideas and dedicated to defending core values. Conservatives everywhere can thank Mr. Buckley for launching what became the modern conservative movement. His example shows the true power of a well-developed mind. More than once, I learned from Mr. Buckley's writings and discourse how to defend cherished beliefs with logic, courage and civility.
What is also important to remember about Mr. Buckley is that he set a wonderful example of how to live a happy, fulfilling life. Everything about the man communicated benevolence, generosity and care for those around him. He managed to change the world while having a terrifically fun time doing it. We can all learn much by his ebullient, spirited example. Rest in peace, Mr. Buckley. You have certainly earned your peace, and now Heaven has a lively new resident to keep everyone there in good cheer.
J.R. Kelly |
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