In Memoriam: Rich Galen

Washington, D.C. – Some people come in and go out of our lives so fast we hardly have time to learn their names before we sweep their dust off our sleeves. Others hang around, we say we know them, and we may even call them friends, but when it comes right down to it, the fact we knew each other does not make much of a difference.

Occasionally, a person comes along who makes an indelible mark on our lives – someone who shapes our thinking and our character – a person who makes a difference. For me, one of those people was GOP Communications consultant Rich Galen, who recently passed away at age 78.

Rich, or Richie, as some people knew him, was a pro’s pro. He had the ear of the powerful and influential people who make things happen. He was one of those “great explainers” who made sense of the world for a generation of D.C.-based journalists who didn’t know a liberal from a libertine or a conservative from a communitarian. He had the ability to make sense out of chaos in a way that was non-threatening, acceptable and unique.

After news of his passing broke, Ron Fornier, the former Associated Press reporter whom many considered the best of the best said on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter that Galen was “a stellar strategist who never lost his humanity, humor or honor in a profession that drains those attributes from lesser souls. He was a friend and a mentor to many, including a cynical, self-absorbed reporter new to DC a lifetime ago.”

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, whose communications operations Galen led in the days before the GOP achieved majority status, called Galen “a genuine patriot with deep knowledge ledge and a strong personality dedicated to true individualism.”

As someone who worked for with him for a couple of years – or as he would have put it with great emphasis “for him” – I can attest that all of that’s true. So can dozens, maybe even hundreds of Capitol Hill staffers, state GOP operatives, Republican elected officials and business leaders who for a time found themselves in his proximity. Moreover, he wasn’t just good at what he did; he made it a point to try, at least, to teach you how to be good at what you did. I often find myself repeating, with attribution of course, advice he gave me on staffing and running an organization. As I recall, it went like this:

Hire the best person or people for the job you need to have done and let them do it. Don’t stand around telling them what to do. That means you’re doing their job and yours.

For a twenty-something with all the social acumen of Sheldon Cooper (look it up using the Secret Decoder Ring if you don’t know), that was a life-changing bit of advice.

During the down time, he would tell me stories about how it had been for him coming up. How he’d sometimes call meetings just to show he could call a meeting or throw things just to make a point to illustrate the ineffectiveness of such behavior as management tools. Whether that was true or not – and it was hard to believe the Rich Galen I knew would do such things – he had a way of making a point so that it stuck. Which is what good communications operatives know how to do.

He was a leader and innovator. His blog at Mullings.com began as something distributed over the fax machine. It became a must-read for a generation of Washington insiders who wanted to know what was going on, especially once it got up online.

There is much that could be written of the work he did in various capacities with Dan Quayle, Newt Gingrich, Lee Atwater, H. Ross Perot, T. Boone Pickens and others who shaped the world in which we now live. Someone who is a lot better writer than I should assume the task.

It would be a great story: How the son of an upholsterer, via a detour through Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio, 45750, ended up with the ear of some of the most powerful people in the most powerful city in the world. I suspect he would call it an American success story except, for him it was his life. And one that would be hard to top.

Rich was the real deal.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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