Everyone else has already said the appropriate things that should be said to mark the passing of William F. Buckley, Jr., but I will offer a few modest remarks.  First, I’d like to associate myself with Ross’ statement:

There probably would have been some sort of successful right-of-center movement in late-twentieth century America without Buckley, but his Catholic-libertarian perspective shaped it, and it owed its immense success in no small measure to his wit and charm and indefatigability.

As Taki Theodoracopulos observes in his tribute to Buckley, he had a reputation for great generosity that was entirely deserved and he was a man “whom every servant loved, as did every ski instructor, every waiter, every young man or woman who came to him for help.”  Every account of meeting him that I have heard or read has conveyed this decency and goodwill, and that reputation, alongside his genuinely notable accomplishments, will outlast the memory of past political disagreements.  I did not have the opportunity to meet the man in person, and by all accounts the loss was mine.  American conservatives owe Buckley a debt, and whatever quarrels there have been in the past they should not obscure the character of the man.  As Joe Sobran put it in a 2006 column about the news of Buckley’s emphysema:

Compared with all this, the political differences that finally drove us apart seem trivial now. I saw the same graciousness in his relations with everyone from presidents to menials. I learned a lot of things from Bill Buckley, but the best thing he taught me was how to be a Christian. May Jesus comfort him now. 

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