William Allen Rusher | |
---|---|
Born |
Chicago, Illinois, USA |
July 19, 1923
Died | April 16, 2011 San Francisco, California |
(aged 87)
Residence | New York City |
Alma mater | Harvard Law School |
Occupation | Attorney; Journalist |
Political party | Campaign strategist for the Draft Goldwater Committee, 1964 |
Spouse(s) | Never married |
William Allen Rusher (July 19, 1923 – April 16, 2011) was an American lawyer, author, activist, speaker, debater, and conservative syndicated columnist. He was one of the founders of the conservative movement and was one of its most prominent spokesmen for thirty years as publisher of National Review magazine, which was edited by William F. Buckley, Jr. Historian Geoffrey Kabaservice argues that, "in many ways it was Rusher, not Buckley who was the founding father of the conservative movement as it currently exists. We have Rusher, not Buckley, to thank for the populist, operationally sophisticated, and occasionally extremist elements that characterize the contemporary movement."
Rusher was born in Chicago in 1923. His family had not been especially political; his parents were moderate Republicans, and his paternal grandfather had been a socialist. In 1930, the family moved to the New York metropolitan area and lived on Long Island. Rusher entered Princeton University at sixteen and was active in student affairs, especially debate. He majored in political science. After graduation in 1943 and wartime service in the United States Army Air Corps, he attended Harvard Law School, where he founded and led the Harvard Young Republicans and from which he graduated in 1948. Until 1956, Rusher practiced corporate law at Shearman, Sterling & Wright, a Wall Street firm in New York City. He then served as associate counsel to the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, under chief counsel Robert J. Morris, for seventeen months.