The influential conservative historian and dedicated anti-communist Lee Edwards, who helped build a memorial in Washington D.C. to the victims of communism, has died. He was 92.
A formative figure in the modern conservative movement, Edwards helped found Young Americans for Freedom in 1960 and worked as a news director for Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign and the Draft Goldwater Committee.
Born in Chicago, Illinois in 1932, Edwards was introduced early to politics by his parents, who were both anti-communists.
His father, the national political reporter for the Chicago Tribune, encouraged his interest in writing.
His lifelong love of freedom was sparked by the 1956 Hungarian Revolution - which he witnessed first with admiration, and then horror as the Soviets crushed the student-let rebellion. Edwards was studying at the Sorbonne University in Paris at the time.
"Having been lifted to the heights by these acts of courage, I was furious, I was embarrassed, I was ashamed, and I became resolute,” he told the Catholic Herald in 2017.
As a young man, Edwards helped found Young Americans for Freedom in 1960 and was the first editor of their magazine, New Guard.
Young America’s Foundation President and former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker said, "Dr. Edward’s dedicated his career to exposing the horrors of Communism and the stories of its victims. May he rest in peace."
After the fall of the Soviet Union, he helped co-found the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in 1994, which built a memorial in Washington D.C. to honor victims of the deadliest ideology in human history.
Dr. Elizabeth Spalding, the Chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundations and Founding Director of the Victims of Communism Museum, said, "Lee Edwards was a friend, mentor, and hero to many, including those who only know him through his works over the course of a life well lived. He was also a husband, father, and grandfather. He will be missed by all. But we rejoice that he is now at home with the Lord and is reunited with his beloved wife Anne. And we will all continue, and redouble our efforts, in the work that remains here for us."
While celebrated for his anti-communism, Edwards was also a respected academic and historian of conservative ideas, known for over 25 books on the conservative movement and its leading figures, including Ronald Reagan and William F. Buckley, Jr.
Edwards was an adjunct professor at Catholic University of America, where he received his doctorate in political science, and a distinguished Fellow in Conservative Thought at the Heritage Foundation.
