Egalitarian.(Remembering WFB)(William F. Buckley, Jr.)(In memoriam)

IN Bill's public appearances, people saw a snooty aloofness--his acting de haut en bas, as he would put it. But in private he was the most egalitarian person I ever met. He treated everyone equally, with equal dignity. When I submitted an article to NATIONALREVIEW "over the transom" in 1957, he called me at the dorm where I was attending summer classes and asked me to visit him in New York when the session ended.

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I checked my suitcase at LaGuardia, since I thought I might fly back out that night, and took a cab to the magazine office. He greeted me, an unknown student, as if I were some important visitor, introduced me around, and asked me to stay while he finished up for the day. Then he drove me back to LaGuardia to pick up my bag, and to Stamford, for dinner and a long talk.

He was curious about my studies and let me do most of the talking. Then he drove me back to New York, put me up in his father's suite at 80 Park Avenue, and drove himself back to Stamford. It was the kind of courtesy I saw him show numberless ...