The boss.

NOW that Bill has met God, he'll have some idea of how I felt when I met him. I joined the staff of NR in 1979, the year I finished college. Bill was in his early 50s and his "cruising speed" was about 500 miles per hour. Who was that traipsing down the hall? A 60 Minutes camera crew. Who was waiting downstairs? A Nobel Prize winner come for lunch. Where is Bill today? London, Antarctica? Who's calling? Johnny Carson? Margaret Thatcher? Alexander Hamilton?

It would have been dizzying just to observe. But Bill drew everyone in. Even a lowly editorial assistant was permitted to write for the magazine--under the careful discipline of Bill's red pen. NR was not for the faint-hearted. One of my early efforts came downstairs with "Needs a cold shower" written in red ink across the top.

Bill had the capacity to make all of us feel that we were delightful to him. If you chanced to run into him on the stairway or in the hall, he would break into the widest grin in the Western hemisphere and greet you as if this meeting were all he needed to cap his day.

Some of my happiest memories are of times when I made Bill laugh. In 1985, NR was celebrating its 30th anniversary. I was working in the White House and penned the following memo to my boss in hopes of catching a ride with the president, who was attending the gala. It read: "I'm asking for a perk. As you know, my first job out of college was at NATIONAL REVIEW. When I joined the editorial staff in 1979, Carter was in the White House, inflation was running at about 17 percent, our national defense and international prestige were both at all-time lows, and SAT scores were falling. By the time I left the staff in 1981, SAT scores were on the rise, inflation was down around 9 percent, our national defense was being restored, and Ronald Reagan was in the White House. I never asked for any thanks. It's just not my way. All I want is a seat on Air Force One when the president flies up to New York to attend NR's 30th-anniversary dinner."

I didn't wind up getting that ride on the president's plane, but I did get Bill's delighted reply--"I found your memo so irresistible that I very nearly dismissed Priscilla from the staff when she told me I couldn't publish it"--and that was worth so much more!

Mona Charen is a syndicated columnist.