William J. Baroody Jr. (November 5, 1937 – June 8, 1996) was an American government official best known for running the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

Office of Public Liaison The White House Office of Public Engagement is a unit of the White House Office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Under the administration of President Barack Obama, it was called the White House Office of Publ ...

under President Gerald Ford and, later, the

American Enterprise Institute The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, known simply as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), is a center-right Washington, D.C.–based think tank that researches government, politics, economics, and social welfare. A ...

(AEI). His leadership of the think tank saw AEI enjoy new levels of political influence but was cut short by financial problems.

Government career

Baroody joined the staffs of

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

Melvin Laird Melvin Robert Laird Jr. (September 1, 1922 – November 16, 2016) was an American politician, writer and statesman. He was a U.S. congressman from Wisconsin from 1953 to 1969 before serving as Secretary of Defense from 1969 to 1973 under Presi ...

and of the

House Appropriations Committee The United States House Committee on Appropriations is a committee of the United States House of Representatives that is responsible for passing appropriation bills along with its Senate counterpart. The bills passed by the Appropriations Commi ...

in 1961, and later served as an aide to Laird at the Pentagon from 1969 to 1973. In 1973 Baroody moved over to the

to take over for the recently resigned

Charles Colson Charles Wendell Colson (October 16, 1931 – April 21, 2012), generally referred to as Chuck Colson, was an American attorney and political advisor who served as Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1970. Once known as P ...

. He worked hard to dispel his office's reputation as the "office of dirty tricks" that had developed under Colson. He consolidated the varied interest group efforts of the Nixon administration into a single office, which incoming President Gerald R. Ford titled the

. Baroody changed the tactics of the administration from strong-arming legislators to one of persuasion. "Under Baroody’s direction, the office incorporated outreach efforts with consumers and women that had been located elsewhere in the White House, and the overall staff grew to approximately thirty. At the core of its activities was an aggressive campaign of regional conferences that enabled the nation's first unelected president to tour the country in a campaign-like atmosphere and prepare the way for an eventual reelection campaign. In Washington, D.C., Baroody also coordinated an extensive series of White House briefings for group and association leaders on a variety of policy topics that brought together group leaders and administration policy-makers. "

Presidency of AEI

Baroody's father, William J. Baroody Sr., had been president of the influential,

right Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical ...

-leaning

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...

since 1962. The younger Baroody became executive vice president of the institute in 1977 and president in 1978. Baroody Sr. died in 1980. Baroody's tenure at the institute saw increasing growth. With the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan in 1981, many AEI scholars' ideas on deregulation, the Cold War, the

culture war A culture war is a cultural conflict between social groups and the struggle for dominance of their values, beliefs, and practices. It commonly refers to topics on which there is general societal disagreement and polarization in societal valu ...

constitutional law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as the basic rights of citizens and, in fe ...

, and other issues achieved currency and a receptive audience. Many AEI scholars left the institute for government service, including

Jeane Kirkpatrick Jeane Duane Kirkpatrick (née Jordan; November 19, 1926December 7, 2006) was an American diplomat and political scientist who played a major role in the foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration. An ardent anticommunist, she was a lo ...

Robert Bork Robert Heron Bork (March 1, 1927 – December 19, 2012) was an American jurist who served as the solicitor general of the United States from 1973 to 1977. A professor at Yale Law School by occupation, he later served as a judge on the U.S. Cour ...

, and James C. Miller III. Baroody expanded AEI's activities, producing more publications and introducing new research areas.American Enterprise Institute
"AEI's Diamond Jubilee, 1943-2003,"
''Annual Report'', 2003. Karlyn Bowman, "American Enterprise Institute," in ''American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia'', ed. Bruce Frohnen, Jeremy Beer, and Jeffrey O. Nelson (Wilmington, Del.: ISI Books, 2006). However, the Reagan administration saw the emergence of new think tanks such as the

Heritage Foundation The Heritage Foundation (abbreviated to Heritage) is an American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. that is primarily geared toward public policy. The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the preside ...

and competition for funding increased. Insiders lamented a pursuit of prestige, evidenced by Baroody's hiring of Ford as a distinguished fellow, at the expense of more ideological conservative scholars.Todd Lencz,
The Baroody Bunch
" ''

National Review ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief ...

'', September 12, 1986. Some donors were concerned about AEI's

centrist Centrism is a political outlook or position involving acceptance or support of a balance of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy while opposing political changes that would result in a significant shift of society strongly to Left-w ...

trend and perceived loss of conservative principle. With AEI on the verge of bankruptcy in June 1986, Baroody resigned and was replaced on an interim basis by the respected economist Paul McCracken.

Personal

Baroody was born in

Manchester, New Hampshire Manchester is a city in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. It is the most populous city in New Hampshire. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 115,644. Manchester is, along with Nashua, one of two seats of New Ha ...

. He was a member of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. He was educated at Holy Cross College, he later served in the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

. He was divorced from his wife, Mary, at the time of his death, and he had nine children and thirteen grandchildren.Eric Page,
William J. Baroody Jr., 58, A Top Aide to President Ford
" obituary, ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', June 10, 1996. Baroody's brothers include Michael Baroody, a corporate lobbyist, and Joseph Baroody, a former leader of the National Association of Arab Americans. Baroody died in 1996 in

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of downtown Washington, D.C. In 2020, the population was 159,467. ...

References

External links

* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Baroody, William Jr. 1937 births 1996 deaths American Enterprise Institute American Melkite Greek Catholics American people of Lebanese descent American political consultants New Hampshire Republicans Virginia Republicans