If you are interested in learning about the remarkable life and career of James L. Buckley, you can put his name in a search engine. You will soon discover that he is one of the few Americans to serve at the highest levels in each of the three branches of American government: U.S. senator. Federal judge. Undersecretary of State. You will also learn that he pulled off a remarkable election victory in 1970, running for U.S. Senate in New York on the Conservative Party line against an incumbent Republican and a sitting Democratic congressman.
What you won’t learn from a simple search is that he was the definition of an honorable leader. Honesty, dignity, humility, and integrity were values that he epitomized. Jim Buckley passed away on August 18, 2023, at the age of 100.
I first met Jim in 1975. I was named chairman of the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) chapter at Vanderbilt University and our informal adviser was a man named David Jones. Our coffers were empty, so Jones suggested we invite his former boss, Senator Buckley, to speak on our behalf. Jones had been the No. 2 in the remarkable Buckley for Senate campaign in New York in 1970 when he won on the Conservative Party line, then went on to serve as his chief of staff in the U.S. Senate. Buckley accepted our invitation, and we held a lunch for Nashville businesspeople at the University Club and sponsored a lecture for students at Vanderbilt. I have forever been grateful to Senator Buckley for taking time from his busy Senate schedule to help give a boost to our YAF chapter.
A more dramatic example of the generous spirit of Senator Buckley was his willingness to sign a fundraising letter for the Fund for American Studies (TFAS) in its early years, when David Jones was seeking desperately to financially stabilize the organization. The letter ended up in the mailbox of a businessman in Baltimore by the name of John Engalitcheff. Engalitcheff visited the offices of TFAS with the letter in hand, seeking to learn more. Jones arranged for Engalitcheff to meet Senator Buckley, and he became a regular donor. When he died, Engalitcheff left TFAS an estate gift of $13 million ($28 million in 2023 dollars).
Earlier this year, on the occasion of his 100th birthday, Jim gave TFAS permission to accept gifts in his honor for purposes of establishing a James L. Buckley Law Fellowship. This Fellowship will provide scholarship assistance to enable law students to attend our Summer Law Fellows program in the coming years.
If you met Jim, you knew right way that you were in the presence of a truly decent man. He held what are sadly considered mostly old-fashioned values in today’s America, humility and deportment being among them. I recall meeting him at breakfast at the Mayflower Hotel in 2010, following the 50th anniversary celebration of the founding of YAF. Jim was ready to drive home to Connecticut. He was dressed in a jacket and tie. To me, that was the mark of someone who believed you should always look your best in public, even when setting out alone in your car for a six-hour drive.
Buckley stayed active until nearing the end of his life. His final book, Freedom at Risk: Reflections on Politics, Liberty, and the State, was published as he neared his 90th birthday. He spoke to the law students attending our Law Fellows program in 2019, and to the National Review Institute annual conference that same year. These were his final public presentations, but he continued to attend occasional events as a guest.
As Herb Stupp opined in the Wall Street Journal on Buckley’s 100th birthday, one oversight that is still in need of correction is that there is no public recognition of Senator Buckley in New York State. Virtually every U.S. senator in recent years has had something named in his honor in the state.
Stupp, a friend and supporter of Buckley over the years, is seeking to rectify that oversight. Let’s hope that it will be done soon. I can think of very few people more deserving of emulating, so perhaps a landmark in the state he represented in the U.S. Senate will keep this man of utmost integrity in the minds of future generations who desperately need examples of a life well lived.
Buckley was a rare gift to this world, and we mourn his loss.
Roger Ream is the president of the Fund for American Studies.