From the category archives:

Passings

Theodore C. Sorensen | 1928 – 2010

October 31, 2010

A Voice that Defined a Presidency and Set the Gold Standard for Political Eloquence Just short of half a century to the day when John F. Kennedy became the 35th President of the United States, his last remaining counselor, Ted Sorensen, passed away.  He was 82.  To be picked by President Kennedy, a man of [...]

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William Safire | 1929 – 2009

September 30, 2009

William Safire died this past week.  He started in public relations and had a stint writing speeches for Spiro Agnew, Richard Nixon’s corrupt and discredited vice president.  But what gained him admiration from well beyond the fringe of the left or the right was his reverence for the English language.  He demonstrated that skill in [...]

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Edward M. Kennedy | 1932 – 2009

August 26, 2009

How grand and ineffably uplifting are these larger-than-life comets that streak across our lives and illuminate our journeys from obstacles and oppression to happiness and hope.  When they pass, and the light of their life dims, we find ourselves in a much better place than we otherwise would have thought even possible. Whether it was [...]

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Jack Kemp | 1935 – 2009

May 3, 2009

He was a man of principle, but not to the extent of forgetting that others have principles too.   He was a politician, but always showed he understood life outside Washington and among those who still have to struggle to get by.  And when he grabbed the ball in politics, just as he did when he [...]

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Neal Hefti | 1922 – 2008

October 20, 2008

We like occasionally to take a break from the deafening cascade of crises and disasters punctuating daily life and turn to some other pursuits that make the world better.  Music features prominently among them.  The artists, composers and musicians who have come this way and left so much behind that has inspired and brought often [...]

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Remembering Tim Russert | 1950 – 2008

June 13, 2008

The foot soldiers and ordinary stakeholders of the political process, which is just about all of us, lost a stalwart champion when Tim Russert, NBC’s Washington Bureau Chief and moderator of Meet the Press, died suddenly on Friday. To me, he was one of those who believed that to make democracy a reality you needed [...]

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William F. Buckley, Jr. | 1925 – 2008

February 27, 2008

He was in many ways like the gifted founders of the American republic itself. A man of prodigious intellect and Jeffersonian wide talents, he saw in the state always something of a looming threat. It may be a sign of growing wisdom or just advancing age, but I get a little sad to see the [...]

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Edmund Percival Hillary, KG, ONZ, KBE |1919 – 2008

January 11, 2008

He was not a politician, nor was he a CEO. The conqueror of Mount Everest was something even more rare by the subprime standards of present day: he was a leader. He gazed upon heights where no man had dared raise his eyes before and scaled their tallest peak. He did it without a golden [...]

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Rowland Frazee | 1921 – 2007

August 1, 2007

It is a legacy that stands in sharp contrast to the so-called hedge fund and LBO heroes of today, who instantly appear then quickly vanish from the scene, and where the celebrity status of self-proclaimed movers and shakers has about the same shelf life as a prize in a cereal box. It is also a [...]

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