After a battle with cancer, Jack Kemp passed away Saturday. He was an all-star college and pro quarterback, a nine-term congressman from Buffalo, a vice presidential and presidential candidate, and HUD secretary. He was perhaps most influential as a dogged proponent of supply-side economics. (A wonderful tribute to him by Kenneth Tomlinson  recaps the central role he played in laying the groundwork for the Reagan Revolution.)

Kemp had the effervescent personality of a man who clearly loved what he did. He possessed qualities that were (and still are) all too rare among conservatives — a sense of fun and a dedication to expand conservatism to places many of his colleagues had written off as beyond their grasp (e.g. housing projects, inner cities). He was convinced that free markets offered minorities and the poor the way to prosperity. Ed Feulner, president of Heritage, summed up: “Freedom is for everybody. That’s what Jack Kemp really stood for.” And, as I experienced, he would go anywhere and sell his message to any audience.

He was also a devoted friend of Israel, as a column from last year illustrates. In poignant words especially apt today, he wrote:

Having been to Israel often since my first trip in 1972 as a rookie member of Congress, I’m always amazed at the incredible progress, juxtaposed against the virulence of its enemies, many of whom would annihilate not only the state of Israel but Jews writ large.

It’s equally hard to believe how much opposition there was 60 years ago this month to a Jewish homeland as the remnant of European Jewry, 6 million of whom were burned and gassed by the Nazis and incarcerated by the brutal despot Joseph Stalin.

One of my foreign policy heroes, Gen. George Marshall, tried to dissuade President Truman from recognizing the new state of Israel in 1948. He and his Arabist allies in the State Department thought it would erode our credibility throughout the whole world. On the contrary, Truman’s support gave moral standing to our nation in keeping with our founding democratic ideals and shared values. Today, Israel is unambiguously our most loyal and steadfast strategic ally in that part of the world, notwithstanding our increasing trade, diplomatic, and strategic friends and allies in the Arabian Gulf.

At a time when conservatives are trying to find their way ideologically and rhetorically, they would do well to emulate this most happy and principled warrior. He will be greatly missed.