Ed Feulner was a good and decent man who loved America and did a lot to make it better.

There are a lot of other things that can and will be said about him: He had real vision and real savvy, which are much rarer in Washington than they ought to be. He was also a coalition-builder, who always preferred addition to division in his political and policy projects. He had an exceptional grasp of how ideas are (and are not) connected to action in politics. And he had a knack for betting on the right people and giving them what they needed to succeed.

Ed was also a kind of natural mentor—at least by the time I got to know him, when he was already an elder statesman of the right. He wasn’t always that, of course. He was only 32 when he started the Heritage Foundation, a fact that has made several generations of conservatives wonder what we’re doing with our time. But even then, he was clearly a builder and an investor in people. He was in his 60s when I first encountered him, in the early 2000s, and I was struck by his peculiarly effective way of guiding younger people. Ed offered advice only when he was asked, but he was always willing to be asked and never made you regret reaching out. His guidance emphasized taking the long view and being practical, but the basic principles of his essentially Reaganite conservatism were never far from the surface of anything he did and said.

I think this was the secret to Ed’s unwavering integrity: His principles kept his very practical work in Washington from becoming cynical, and his practical mindedness prevented him from ever abstracting away from the human realities of politics, and of American life. And he managed that balance with cheerfulness and good humor — no one who knew him will forget his laugh.

Ed certainly had some concerns about the direction of the right in recent years. He co-authored this essay with Mike Pence, which we at National Affairs were honored to publish just last month, expressing some of those. But he also saw some great opportunities in this moment, and (as he put it to me in what turned out to be our last email exchange) he thought it was up to people younger than he was to distinguish concerns from opportunities now and to chart a path for conservatism and the nation. And he dearly loved what he built at Heritage and had a lot of respect for his successors there and a lot of confidence in them.

All of this added up to a complex and impressive human picture. But while there is a lot to say about Ed, for me it all comes down to his fundamental decency and his deep love of our country.

We were lucky to have him. R.I.P.