Henry Salvatori, RIP

National Review, August 11, 1997 by William F. Buckley, Jr.

PROFESSOR Larry Arnn, the head of the Claremont Institute in California, sends out a bulletin to his friends:

"On July 7 our dear friend and benefactor Henry Salvatori passed away at the age of 96. He lived a splendid life. He was one of those people who succeed at virtually every task to which they turn their hand. If he started a business, it became very large and made money for everyone who invested. If he gave to a charity, it pursued a hard mission with diligence and success. If he picked a politician -- well, it is sufficient to say that he picked Ronald Reagan.

"In recent years I came to know much about his life, having written an extensive biography of him. He was reticent about this, and I'll need to deliberate with his friends whether it would be right, at some point, to publish it. I can say here that he was an immigrant boy of modest means; that he lived a life in business of adventure and entrepreneurship; that he followed the golden rule as a manager, competitor, and citizen; that he invented and built a major industry; that he married and loved the same fine woman for 52 years and with her raised two children; that he fought without fear for causes that were high and difficult; that he held no malice; that he gave vastly and asked nothing -- would indeed accept nothing -- in return; that his love of country was pure, selfless, and intelligent.

"Today in the news there is much talk of the evil of money politics. Henry Salvatori was the leader of the small group who called on Ronald Reagan to propose that he stand for governor of California. They promised him two things: that they would take care of the money question; and that they would accept no favor, no office, no appointment in return. I have searched the archives of Henry Salvatori and of Ronald Reagan. I find no breach of this promise. He was not born a citizen of this land he came to love. He earned his place by such deeds as this, compounded many times."

And the opening paragraph from a speech I gave at a Claremont Institute dinner honoring Henry Salvatori:

"I have one advantage over you all here tonight, and I am not referring to my singular political wisdom. It is that I have known the guest of honor, I warrant, longer than anyone else present. I first met him in 1954, in New York City, in the little building from which my father deployed his imagination as an oil entrepreneur. I don't know what Henry Salvatori was doing in the family offices. I was merely introduced to him when I was en route to the cubicle I occupied during the three months I spent as an apprentice oil tycoon. But I have to conclude from observing his resources and comparing them with those of my family that, in dealing with us, he scored yet another economic conquest."

When I first met Henry Salvatori we were only a few years in the Cold War, on a collision course with dystopia. It would be 35 more years before the Berlin Wall came down, signaling the end of the most highly organized threat to liberty in the history of the world.

During that period we relied on such inanimate objects as a nuclear repository. But we relied above all on sane thought and a clear and liberating determination. I know nobody who by his example more strikingly incarnated the ideals of reason and liberty than Henry Salvatori. He did everything he could do as an individual to inspire the confidence and the devotion of the men and women who worked with him for all those years. And then he took the fruits of a lifetime's work and put them at the disposal of men and women of a younger generation, charging only that they pursue the ideals he so eloquently served since the day when at age six he got off the boat from Italy, and began a lifetime of productive work, leaving signs of his personal grace everywhere he lived and worked.

Among the beneficiaries of Henry Salvatori's generosity was NATIONAL REVIEW. He was an early investor in it and never failed to act on our annual request. The editors join in extending condolences to his family.

*WFB would be grateful if none of his friends and heroes died during the next fortnight, as he plans a vacation.