My uncle, W. Cleon Skousen, died on Jan. 9, 2006, at the age of 92. He influenced millions of lives, especially out West, as a member of the anti-communist movement of the 1950s and 1960s. I always felt that men like Herb Philbrick, Walter Judd, Fred Schwarz, Thomas Dodd, and my uncle, among others, never got the credit they deserved for fighting the menace of communism in the early days of the Cold War, especially when the KGB files confirmed that “they were right,” as one previously skeptical investigator said (See Richard Gid Powers, “Not Without
Honor: The History of American Anticommunism”). Cleon wrote over 40 books on political and religious topics. He was an FBI special assistant under J. Edgar Hoover, and chief of police of Salt Lake City; he was the founder of the National Center for Constitutional Studies and had a lifelong interest in defending the U.S. Constitution, which he regarded as an inspired document. At various investment conferences, the most frequent question I heard was IJ’Are you related to Cleon Skousen?” I always proudly responded, “‘Yes, sir!” He was a great man – a giant in the West.
