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)