February 27, 2008 7:02PM # RIP WFB By [Ilya Shapiro](https://www.cato.org/people/ilya-shapiro) --- SHARE ![WFB - From the Washington Post](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/download-remote-images/www.cato.org/172395922072/200802_blog_wfb.jpg?itok=8DQBFMyK) We knew it had to happen but still it’s a shock. A classical liberal — and [libertarian enabler](http://www.reason.com/news/show/125210.html) — in so many ways, William F. Buckley, Jr. was the quintessential public intellectual without whom public intellectual life is now hard to fathom. Though not a great philosophical influence on me personally — I came around to his writing later even than I started reading *National Review* (originally finding it, to use both Buckleyesque language and irony, [sesquipedalian](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Sesquipedalian)) — the institution he created and movement he fostered certainly affect my life daily. Before think tanks emerged to counter the left-wing takeover of the academy and public discourse, before cable channels provided alternatives to network news, long before the Reagan Revolution, Buckley famously began standing athwart history yelling stop. All this while embodying the prolific, polymathic, bon vivant style that appeals to those of us who ever dreamed of inhabiting that realm of ideas between academia and the real world and having great fun doing it. Well played, Mr. Buckley, well played. ##### Related Tags [General](https://www.cato.org/general) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).