***The fellows and staff of the Ethics and Public Policy Center mourn the death of EPPC's founding president, Dr. Ernest W. Lefever, and are grateful to the Lefever family for their permission to publish this obituary.
A memorial service for Dr. Lefever will take place on Saturday, August 22, at 3 p.m., at St. Columba Church, 4201 Albemarle Street N.W., Washington, D.C. ***
Ernest W. Lefever, Ph.D. died peacefully at Cross Keys Village, a Church of the Brethren Nursing Home near York Pennsylvania after a year-long battle with dementia. He was 89.
Ernest Lefever was the middle of five sons born to Katie and Calvin Lefever of York, Pennsylvania. He was graduated from Elizabethtown College with a B.A. and from Yale University with B.D. and Ph.D. degrees in Christian Ethics. He has written, co-authored or edited more than twenty books including Ethics and U.S. Foreign Policy (1957), Profile of American Politics (1960), Arms and Arms Control (1962), Crisis in the Congo (1965), Spear and Scepter: Army, Police, and Politics in Tropical Africa (1970), Ethics and World Politics (1972), TV and National Defense (1974), Nuclear Arms in the Third World (1979), Amsterdam to Nairobi: The World Council of Churches and the Third World (1979) The CIA and the American Ethic (1980), The Apocalyptic Premise: Nuclear Arms Debated (1982), Nairobi to Vancouver: The WCC and the World, 1975-87 (1987).
Dr. Lefever was one of America’s premier scholars in ethics and politics. He was a speechwriter for Senator and Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey during Presidential campaigns in 1960 and 1968. He was a Senior Fellow and senior foreign policy researcher at the Brookings Institution from 1964 to 1976. He then established the highly respected Ethics and Public Policy Center, an independent, nonprofit research organization in 1976 and served as its President until his retirement in 1989.
In 1981, Dr. Lefever was nominated by President Ronald Reagan for Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights. He was also a long-time member of the Council on Foreign Relations. His tireless advocacy for human rights, as well as his staunch patriotism, made his family proud.
After his retirement, Ernest continued writing full-time. His articles appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Washington Times, USA Today, TV Guide, Foreign Affairs, National Review, American Spectator, The National Interest, and many other journals. His most recent books included The Irony of Virtue: Ethics and American Power (1998), America’s Imperial Burden: Is the Past Prologue? (1999), and Liberating the Limerick (2006). He last published a book review in the Washington Times in 2008.
Dr. Lefever traveled extensively in Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. His hobbies included stamp collecting and woodworking. He was an active member of the Cosmos Club for more than 40 years.
He is survived by his lovely wife of 58 years, Margaret Briggs Lefever of Chevy Chase, MD, two sons and daughters-in-law, David and Kim Lefever of New Rochelle, NY and Bryce and Shyla Lefever, of Norfolk, VA. He has four grandchildren, Paris Lefever, Scott Lefever, Alex Lefever and Elizabeth Lefever.
