Willam A. Rusher, former National Review publisher, nationally syndicated columnist, and friend, counselor and mentor to countless leaders and aspiring leaders of the conservative movement, passed away Saturday in San Francisco after a long illness.

Rusher was a founder of the modern conservative movement, serving for decades as National Review’s publisher, helping launch and then guide Young Americans for Freedom in its best years, and being an active advocate and productive political organizer within and without the Republican Party from the Goldwater era through and beyond the Reagan presidency.