In lamenting the passing of William F. Buckley yesterday, the adjective my editor used to describe Buckley was the same word floating through my brain: gracious. I witnessed Buckley's graciousness first hand. I briefly met Buckley for a few hours in the Spring of 1999. I had helped organize a conference at the University of Chicago, and met Buckley at the terminal at Midway, walked him to his hotel, and later dined with him, David Horowitz, and a group of students. The students were deferential, save one whose awe drifted deep into sycophancy, appearing as Chris Farley to Buckley's Paul McCartney in that famous SNL sketch. Buckley handled his not-so-secret admirer with tolerance and, what else, grace.

He took interest in young people, which stands as a major reason why his imprint survives. He appointed a twentysomething to edit his magazine. He scooped up a teenage Richard Brookhiser to write for National Review. He discovered David Brooks after he had lampooned Buckley in college. Young Americans for Freedom's Sharon Statement, the best short expression of conservative principles that I've encountered, was written at Buckley's house by Stan Evans and a bunch of activist upstarts.

Buckley's was a conservative, not a Republican, movement. He sat out the 1956 election rather than hold his nose and vote for Eisenhower. His magazine endorsed Richard Nixon's primary challenger, John Ashbrook, in 1972. He helped found a third party, New York's Conservative Party, and challenged liberal Republican John Lindsey for mayor in the Big Apple. He wasn't afraid to go against the movement grain, as his support for legalization of drugs and ceding the Panama Canal to Panama, and belated criticism of the Iraq War, demonstrate.

For critics on the Right he could become Pope Buckley, issuing excommunications (Randians, Birchers, Rothbardians) to those who strayed and dispensations to semi-believing converts. Though he is often credited with cleaning out conservatism's fever swamps, it's worth noting that he also championed causes unpopular--America First, Joe McCarthy--with those cheering his work in cleaning up conservatism.

The charming aristocrat with elastic eyebrows, the pencil chewer issuing sesquipedalian words from the same mouth, the novelist, polemicist, movement leader, politician, harpsichordist, sailor, magazine editor, brilliant conversationalist, William F. Buckley we would be lucky to see the likes of you again. Rest in peace.

A minor point.

Mr. Nixon's primary challenger in 1972 was Rep. John Ashbrook of Ohio. John Ashcroft had not yet entered politics. Mr. Ashbrook died in 1982.

Thanks, Art. It's not minor. I always see that mistake and make fun of people who commit it. Now I am of their fools' fraternity. I'll correct.

What a sad day. The death of an era. He was one of those rare figures for whom one could write a "Life and Times of . . ." and really get to know the times through all his activities.

A flawed man (embraced the warfare-welfare state for the "duration" of the cold war, then never called for its dismantling after the Soviets were defeated, allowed his National Review to devolve into an extension of Republican Party propaganda rather than an organ of true conservative thought, cleansed from the conservative movement thinkers, such as Rothbard, who never should have been). But ultimately, a good man. He will be deeply missed. I personally find myself mourning him more than I ever thought I would, and more, surprisingly even to me, than any other public intellectual.