Goodbye, Mr. Olin

NOBODY likes to think too much about the death of an aging parent. Yet it’s something most people must confront at some awful moment in their lives. Today, conservatives find themselves in this painful predicament as they watch the John M. Olin Foundation head for the grave. They may want to blame Henry Ford II.

That’s because Ford quit the Ford Foundation in 1977, complaining that a creation of capitalism had become an enemy of it. “I’m just saying that the system that makes the Foundation possible is very probably worth preserving,” he complained in a letter to the board. A man named John M. Olin took note. “This riveted his attention,” recalls Michael Joyce, who was executive director of the Olin Foundation from 1979 to 1985. Olin wanted to use his fortune to promote the intellectual and political interests of conservatism—and he also wanted to ensure that his money never fell into the hands of people who had other designs.

NOBODY likes to think too much about the death of an aging parent. Yet it’s something most people must confront at some awful moment in their lives. Today, conservatives find themselves in this painful predicament as they watch the John M. Olin Foundation head for the grave. They may want to blame Henry Ford II.

That’s because Ford quit the Ford Foundation in 1977, complaining that a creation of capitalism had become an enemy of it. “I’m just saying that the system that makes the Foundation possible is very probably worth preserving,” he complained in a letter to the board. A man named John M. Olin took note. “This riveted his attention,” recalls Michael Joyce, who was executive director of the Olin Foundation from 1979 to 1985. Olin wanted to use his fortune to promote the intellectual and political interests of conservatism—and he also wanted to ensure that his money never fell into the hands of people who had other designs.

About the Author

John J. Miller

John J. Miller, a former national correspondent for National Review, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.