I am saddened to report that Pat Korten, Cato’s vice president for communications from 1996 to 1999, died Thursday evening after suffering a stroke earlier in the week. 

Pat was a personal friend of mine. We served together in the administration of President Reagan, first for four years at the Office of Personnel Management, then for two years at the Department of Justice where Pat continued to serve under President George H.W. Bush. 

Pat was a movement classical liberal from his first days as an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin. He was an informed and sharp communicator of the first order in all the positions he held, including with the Knights of Columbus, where he spent the last ten years of his career. More than anything, however, he was man of deeply held principle, who at the same time could fill a room with his infectious laugh. We’ve lost a wonderful spokesman for liberty. May he rest in peace.