Conservative historian and political commentator Doug Wead died Friday after suffering a massive stroke a week earlier. He was 75.
Wead, a New York Times bestselling author, wrote the 2019 book “Inside Trump’s White House: The Real Story of His Presidency.”
The author of more than 30 books, Wead had been hospitalized in Fort Myers, Florida. He was removed from a ventilator and died of heart failure Friday.
“He will be remembered as a great American historian and not a woke left winger,” conservative author Craig Shirley told The Patriot Depot Monday after learning of Wead’s death.
“Doug believed in just telling the facts of history as they were,” he added.
Shirley said Wead’s passing will leave a great void because “the world is filled with left-wing historians but has very few conservative historians.”
Credited with coining the phrase “compassionate conservative,” Wead served in the White House as special assistant to then-President George H. W. Bush.
Wead, a devout Christian, served the Bush White House and later the Republicans in helping to build their alliance with evangelicals, now a key constituency in GOP politics.
Camille Wead cited her father’s humanitarian exploits, such as helping to start the National Charity Awards Dinner after he returned from Cambodia, where the devastation left by the brutal Pol Pot regime had left that nation in a state of plague and famine.
“He was known for interviewing presidents, presidential children, and all the things he’s done, but he had a huge heart for people,” Camille Wead told The Patriot Depot on Monday.
Doug Wead worked for many years with Dave Donaldson, an author and international humanitarian leader who helped start CityServe, which assists local churches “create greater impact.”
“It is with a very heavy heart that we share this sad news. Doug inspired my brothers and me in so many ways. Please pray for Myriam and the kids.” – Dave Donaldson, CityServe co-founder and chairman https://bit.ly/3oJj1cJ,” CityServe tweeted Friday night.
Shirley told The Patriot Depot that he and Wead had been discussing, as recently as a month ago, co-writing a book and teaming up on a lecture series about “the fallacy of The 1619 Project and on the reality of 1776.”
After President Joe Biden was elected in November 2020, Wead told Charisma magazine founder and CEO Stephen Strang that Christians needed to get involved politically before our freedoms disappear.
“Christians were used as flaming torches in Nero’s garden. I hope that’s not where we’re headed, but the church has survived,” Wead said on “The Strang Report.”
“The only thing that makes you different from somebody living in a dictatorship is you have the freedom to vote, the freedom to run for office, the freedom to petition government, the freedom of speech, what you write in a book — those are the basic freedoms, some of which we’re talking about losing. So as a good steward, you need to definitely be involved.”
