Phil Brennan, NewsMax.com
Tuesday, March 28, 2006

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He was an original – a happy warrior, gruff, unkempt, outspoken, loyal, fiercely conservative - and one of the finest human beings I've ever known.

In his later years he adopted the pseudonym Joy Skilmer, writing sometimes hilarious doggerel always aimed at puncturing large, gas-filled liberal balloons and whatever else he regarded as insults to common sense.

I first met Lyn Nofziger when he was running the San Diego Union's two-man Washington bureau. That was 45 years ago, and the Lyn I knew then never changed one whit, except for adding a certain amount of girth to his middle. In all the years I knew him I never once saw him with his collar buttoned. He was always proudly disheveled. It was his trademark. He rose to great heights but never once was anything but what he had always been. Humble isn't exactly the word I'd use to describe Lyn, because he was always sure of himself and of what he believed. But there was no pride in him, he accepted himself as who and what he was – take him or leave him, he couldn't have cared less.

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He was a friend for almost half a century and though we seldom saw each other we stayed in touch almost to the very end. If he was in California, working for then-Governor Reagan, I was in Washington, and when he was in Washington I was in Florida. But the twain did meet, first by snail mail or phone call, later by the magic of e-mail. When he inaugurated his own Web site, I ran what he called his "Musings" every week on my Wednesday on the Web. His last column celebrated Christmas, and castigated the president for sending out Christmas cards that never mentioned Christmas.

For Thanksgiving, on Nov. 23, he wrote "Happy Thanksgiving, one and all. I hope you have much to be thankful for. As for me, I'm thankful to be alive and to have family gathered around for this special day. I am thankful that I was born in and live in the land of the free with all that that implies.

"I am thankful that there is a God, a Creator to whom I can be thankful.

"Thanksgiving, of course, is a religious holiday, whether or not one wants to admit it. Giving thanks implies that there is a superior Someone to be thankful to for the blessings one has received during the year. If God does not exist then who does one thank? His lucky stars?

"I feel sorry for atheists. Who do they turn to in their hour of need or their time of joy? I have no idea. But I know who I turn to and in His name I again wish all who read this a happy Thanksgiving and much to be thankful for in the year ahead."

In his little book of poems, "Unbridled Joy: The Verse of Joy Skilmer" he wrote of the man he more than anybody else helped make president of the United States, the man he called "Ronnie" and never Mr. President, Ronald Reagan. In the conclusion of one tribute he wrote "Most men depart without a trace. He left the world a better place."

So did Lyn.

Requiescat in Pacem, old friend.