“The Founders pledged their ‘lives, fortunes, and sacred honor’ to the Revolution … if Jefferson was right that ‘eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,’ then the revolution is ongoing.”

—Ed Crane

Ed Crane was the cofounder and president emeritus of the Cato Institute. Born on August 15, 1944, Crane cofounded Cato in 1977 and served as its president until October 2012, guiding it from a three-person outfit in San Francisco into one of the nation’s most prominent public policy research organizations. He dedicated much of his life to championing the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace. As one colleague wrote, the Cato Institute was Ed Crane’s gift to America—and his legacy lives on in every scholar, Partner, and citizen inspired to defend freedom.

Ed Crane, Milton Friedman, and Jim Dorn pose for a portrait.

(left to right) Ed Crane with Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman and James A. Dorn, senior fellow emeritus at Cato.

Ed Crane and Roger Pilon, founder of Cato’s Center for Constitutional Studies, greet Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas before a meeting with Cato scholars in 1994.

(left to right) Roger Pilon, founder of Cato’s Center for Constitutional Studies, and Ed Crane greet Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas before a meeting with Cato scholars in 1994.

William Niskanen, Ed Crane, David Boaz

(left to right) William A. Niskanen, former acting head of President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers and longtime chairman of the Cato Institute, with Cato cofounder and president Ed Crane, and David Boaz, Cato executive vice president and distinguished senior fellow.