Lee Edwards, Ph.D.
Dr. Lee Edwards, founding Chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, and recipient of its Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom died December 12, 2024, at home in Arlington, Virginia.
Dr. Elizabeth Spalding, the Chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundations and Founding Director of the Victims of Communism Museum, released the following statement on his passing:
Lee Edwards was a friend, mentor, and hero to many, including those who only know him through his works over the course of a life well lived. He was also a husband, father, and grandfather. He will be missed by all. But we rejoice that he is now at home with the Lord and is reunited with his beloved wife Anne. And we will all continue, and redouble our efforts, in the work that remains here for us.
Lee Edwards was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1932, to Leila and Willard Edwards. His father, the national political reporter for the Chicago Tribune, moved the family to Silver Spring, Maryland, where Lee was raised. He attended Duke University and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English before serving two years in the U.S. Army.
As a graduate student at the Sorbonne University in Paris, Dr. Edwards witnessed Hungarian students in 1956 launch a revolution in the streets of Budapest that toppled the Communist regime. As Soviet tanks crushed the Freedom Fighters, he was appalled by the West’s lack of response and made a lifelong pledge to oppose communism.
Since then, Dr. Edwards has been a leader in the fight for freedom. He helped found Young Americans for Freedom in 1960 and was the first editor of YAF’s magazine, New Guard. He started or helped sustain key anti-Communist organizations, such as the National Captive Nations Committee, the Committee for a Free China, and the American Council for World Freedom.
Dr. Edwards served as director of public information for Senator Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign and ran a Washington, D.C. public relations firm before earning a doctorate in world politics from the Catholic University of America. He was the founding director of the TFAS Institute of Political Journalism at Georgetown University, a fellow at the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a past president of the Philadelphia Society. He later served as Distinguished Fellow in Conservative Thought at the Heritage Foundation and was an adjunct professor of politics at Catholic University. The Heritage Foundation instituted its annual Lee Edwards Lecture in Conservative Leadership in 2024.
Often called the historian of the conservative movement, Dr. Edwards was the author, co-author, or editor of over 25 books, including biographies of President Ronald Reagan, Goldwater, Dr. Walter Judd, and William F. Buckley, Jr. His works were translated into Chinese, Japanese, French, Hungarian, Polish, and Swedish. His most recent works included A Brief History of the Cold War (2016), with Elizabeth Edwards Spalding, and his autobiography, Just Right: A Life in Pursuit of Liberty (2017).
His various accolades included the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary, the Millennium Star of Lithuania, the Cross of Terra Mariana of Estonia, the Friendship Medal of Diplomacy from the Republic of China (Taiwan), the John Ashbrook Award, the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award, the Legends of YAF Award from Young America’s Foundation, the Walter Judd Freedom Award, and the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom from VOC.
In 1990, while at Sunday brunch, the Edwards family resolved that an organization was needed to memorialize all the victims of communism around the world and to educate Americans about the atrocities of communism.
With authorization by unanimous congressional legislation signed into law by President Bill Clinton on December 17, 1993, Dr. Edwards and his dear friend Dr. Lev Dobriansky co-founded the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in 1994 as an educational, research, and human rights nonprofit organization devoted to commemorating the more than 100 million people killed by communism around the world and to pursuing the freedom of those still living under totalitarian regimes. Years of commitment resulted in the Victims of Communism Memorial, which was erected on Capitol Hill and dedicated by President George W. Bush on June 12, 2007. Dr. Edwards’ vision eventually led to the Victims of Communism Museum, which opened in June 2022, and the development of numerous VOC educational programs and materials. Recently, the House of Representatives statutorily tasked the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation with expanding its student curriculum to teach about the evils of communism in classrooms nationwide.
Lee and Anne—his late wife of 57 years, best friend, editor, and senior counselor—are survived by two daughters and eleven grandchildren.
Friends and supporters wanting to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Edwards are invited to do so by donating to the Lee and Anne Edwards Freedom Fund at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.
