He didn’t need to be the face of the movement. He was its backbone. Now, the burden falls to the rest of us – to build, to train, to equip, ...

Conservatism didn’t begin with Ed Feulner. But without him, it may never have found its footing.

Long before political movements branded themselves with slick slogans or million-dollar ad campaigns, Ed recognized an essential truth: Ideas alone don’t win. They need disciplined and durable institutions to carry them forward. Seeing a void of such institutions in the 1970s, he built the Heritage Foundation from scratch – and in so doing, gave conservatism the structure it needed to endure and thrive.

I first arrived at Heritage in the early 2000s, a junior staffer with more zeal than wisdom. Like many who passed through Heritage’s doors, I knew Ed’s name long before I knew the man. But no amount of reading prepared me for the force of his presence – steady, gracious, exacting. Over time, I had the extraordinary privilege of serving as his chief of staff – an education no classroom could match.

Ed’s intellectual roots ran deep, but he was uncomfortable being called a philosopher. While giants like F. A. Hayek, William F. Buckley, and Milton Friedman shaped the contours of conservative thought, Ed believed his mission was to figure out how to get those ideas off the bookshelf and into the bloodstream of government. He liked to say that Heritage was “the world’s best peddler of second-hand ideas.” He designed Heritage not to generate academic theory, but to translate it – to bridge the gap between thinker and doer, scholar and statesman.

Ed’s vision came into full view in 1980 with the Mandate for Leadership, a governing blueprint he commissioned for the incoming Reagan administration. Ed convened the brightest conservative minds from across the country and got them pulling in the same direction. The result was nothing short of transformational. In the short term, the Reagan administration implemented over 60 percent of its recommendations. In the long term, it proved what the right could achieve when united by principle and possessed with the will to act.

But Ed was never satisfied with his last success. He spent his life scaling up the architecture of conservatism: founding state-level think tanks, mentoring young staffers, launching policy shops overseas, and serving on the board of a new generation of conservative organizations like Advancing American Freedom. His fingerprints are all over the infrastructure that sustains the modern conservative project.

He also knew when to adapt. In the twilight of his Heritage tenure, Ed recognized that conservative victories would require more than white papers and Capitol Hill briefings. So he helped launch Heritage Action for America, a new model that fused policy with grassroots advocacy. He knew we had to do more than be right – we had to be heard. And we had to equip the base to speak if we wanted the Beltway to listen.

That was the essence of Ed’s approach: principle married to pragmatism; idealism grounded in action. He never confused visibility with value. In an era increasingly obsessed with clicks, followers, and cable hits, Ed kept his eyes on the long game. He was building a movement meant to last.

To work with him was to learn the virtue of humility and the power of perseverance. He was rarely the loudest voice in the room, but was often the wisest. His mentorship shaped a generation of conservative leaders, and his legacy will shape many more to come.

Ed Feulner didn’t need to be the face of the movement. He was its backbone. And now that he’s gone, the burden falls to the rest of us – to build, to train, to equip, and to lead.

He showed us how. Now we go forward in his footsteps.

Tim Chapman was Ed Feulner’s chief of staff from 2008–10 and a cofounder of Heritage Action with him. He is president of Advancing American Freedom.