Edwin J. Feulner Jr., founder of The Heritage Foundation and leader of the conservative movement, died Friday at age 83.
Mr. Feulner started the foundation in 1973. He served as its president from 1977 to 2013 and on an interim basis from 2017-18, leading one of the most influential think tanks in Washington.
He began his career in Washington as a public affairs fellow for the Center for Strategic Studies, now known as the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He was an assistant to Wisconsin Rep. Melvin Laird, who later became defense secretary, then worked as chief of staff to another Republican, Illinois Rep. Philip Crane.
Mr. Feulner was executive director of the Republican Study Committee before founding Heritage.
He was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal in 1989 by President Ronald Reagan for his work at the think tank.
“Ed Feulner was more than a leader — he was a visionary, a builder, and a patriot of the highest order,” Heritage President Kevin Roberts and Board of Trustees Chairman Barb Van Andel-Gaby said in a joint statement. “His unwavering love of country and his determination to safeguard the principles that made America the freest, most prosperous nation in human history shaped every fiber of the conservative movement — and still do.”
Mr. Feulner was born in Chicago and graduated from Denver’s Regis University with double majors in English and business, then received an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. He attended Georgetown University and the London School of Economics before earning a doctorate from the University of Edinburgh.
He also authored nine books from 1968 to 2012.
Mr. Feulner authored the afterword for Project 2025, a policy document authored by the Heritage Foundation, titled “Onward,” a word with which he signed off every day, according to the foundation’s joint statement.
Project 2025 has been thought by some to be the blueprint for President Trump’s second administration, despite him saying it’s not part of his agenda.
“Whether he was bringing together the various corners of the conservative movement at meetings of the Philadelphia Society, or launching what is now the Heritage Strategy Forum, Ed championed a bold, ‘big-tent conservatism,’” the joint statement said. “He believed in addition, not subtraction. Unity, not uniformity. One of his favorite mantras was ‘You win through multiplication and addition, not through division and subtraction.’ His legacy is not just the institution he built, but the movement he helped grow — a movement rooted in faith, family, freedom and the founding.”
It added, “His ‘Feulnerisms’ still resonate in the halls of Heritage — where they will always be remembered. ‘People are policy,’ for instance — the heartbeat of his mission — to equip, encourage and elevate a new generation of conservative leaders, not just in Washington, but across this great country. And we still remember his adjuration to never be complacent or discouraged: ‘In Washington, there are no permanent victories and no permanent defeats.”
Republican lawmakers and party officials lined up to pay tribute to the long-time conservative leader.
“As the founder of @RepublicanStudy and longtime president of the Heritage Foundation, Ed Feulner was one of the architects who built the conservative movement in this country,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Louisiana Republican, wrote on X. “I was fortunate enough to get to know Ed when I was RSC Chairman, and all of our Members benefited from his wisdom and care for the organization. His legacy will have a lasting impact on our country, and my prayers are with his family as we all mourn his loss.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, also a Louisiana Republican, posted on X, “God bless the extraordinary legacy of Ed Feulner, and his singular influence upon the conservative movement. Praying tonight for his family and all who mourn his loss. ‘Onward. Always.”
Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley called Feulner a “giant in the conservative movement.”
“For decades, he worked tirelessly to not only build the Heritage Foundation, but to mentor countless thinkers, members of Congress and staff,” Mr. Whatley said in a statement. “Ed always said that ’personnel is policy,’ but those people are also now his great legacy.”
