A successful movement needs three things: a cogent core of beliefs, the capacity to affect tangible and sustainable change, and a mechanism for recruiting, motivating, preparing and promoting its adherents.
M. Stanton Evans, who helped create all these conditions for America’s conservative movement, died on March 3, 2015 at age 80, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. America has lost one of its greatest citizens and a true original.
Stan was at the epicenter of the post-World War II conservative movement. He graduated with honors from Yale in 1955 and became close friends with another conservative alumnus — William F. Buckley. Buckley established National Review and a hub of conservative thinkers in New York City. Stan moved to Washington, D.C., and became managing editor for Human Events. Both men would help distill and adapt to current issues the works of the great conservative minds of the post-war era — Milton Friedman, Friedrich von Hayek, Harry Jaffa, Russell Kirk, Frank S. Meyer, Ludwig von Mises and Richard Weaver.
In 1960, at age 26, Evans crafted the Sharon Statement: the enduring manifesto of the conservative movement. It formed the credo of Young Americans for Freedom, countering the emerging radical leftists on college campuses.
In Washington, Stan connected with the core of conservative political leaders, such as Barry Goldwater, H.R. Gross, Walter Judd, and journalists like Rowland Evans, Robert Novak, Henry Regnery, Allan Ryskind and Tom Winter. He was one of the driving forces behind the presidential campaigns of Goldwater 1964 and Reagan 1968 and 1976.
From these experiences, Evans helped establish the organizational foundations that would bring the modern conservative movement to its zenith during Reagan’s 1980 campaign and first term.
In 1977, Evans founded the National Journalism Center (NJC), dedicated to preparing young people to be journalists. He created the Monday Club, a free-wheeling networking luncheon for conservatives on Capitol Hill at the Hawk ‘n’ Dove. He founded the Joseph Story Society, the forerunner to the Federalist Society for conservative lawyers. From his NJC offices above the Hawk ‘n’ Dove, Stan, accompanied by his loyal three-legged dog, Zip, crafted his most audacious and successful enterprise.
On Sept. 24, 1979, Stan hosted a dinner for top conservative House staffers. A dozen of us gathered at Toscanini’s and heard Stan’s vision for a political guerrilla war against President Jimmy Carter and the liberals in Congress. This was the charter meeting of the “Chesapeake Society,” which came to include staff from 75 different member offices, plus committee and leadership staff. It became the most successful opposition network in Republican congressional history — a parliamentary wrecking crew for disemboweling, stopping and delaying liberal legislation until Ronald Reagan arrived.
After Reagan’s landslide victory, Stan regularly convened the conservatives involved in the presidential transition to share operational intelligence. He wanted to prevent the Reagan administration from falling to”Evans’ Law”— “When ‘our people’ get to the point where they can do us some good, they stop being ‘our people.'” That forum, known as”Inchon,”was intended to establish a beachhead of solid conservatives”behind enemy lines”in the executive branch (hence the name). He thus helped make the Reagan era what it was. Many of Inchon’s core leaders went on to staff the Gingrich Revolution in Congress.
Stan also wanted to make sure conservatives had fun as they assailed the liberal pillars of Washington. That’s why he started the Coolidge Society, the Conservative Club and Conservative Cabaret — models for today’s diverse array of conservative networking, social, and charitable enterprises, which help newcomers to the nation’s Capital join, learn, and thrive among the like-minded.
But of all Stan’s accomplishment, one towers above all the rest. Those who knew him are recalling his ceaseless devotion to mentoring young people, both through NJC and in his other enterprises. His door was always open. There was always an extra chair at any table where he ate and drank. He always answered his phone. He always had time to listen and reflect, provide advice and support, and take action to help. He was a mentor to us all.
The formal obituaries declared that Stan Evans had no immediate survivors. They are wrong. Thousands of conservative activists owe their lives and livelihoods to Stan Evans. We are all Stan’s descendants.
Scot Faulkner was Stan’s friend since 1978. He served as Reagan’s Director of Personnel, on the Reagan White House Staff, and as Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions for editorials, available at this link.
