William Marina R.I.P.
By David Beito • Tuesday July 7, 2009 9:38 AM PDT • 6 Comments
Bruce Bartlett just informed me of the sad news that my friend, and Independent Institute Research Fellow, Professor William Marina, died this morning of a heart attack. Bill was a fearless friend of the truth and his passing will be a great loss for us all.
I was first introduced to Bill about twenty years ago by his friend Leonard Liggio. We had a wonderful lunch discussion about American history including his dissertation on the American Anti-Imperialist League. Of all the anti-imperialists, he had the kindest words for U.S. Senator William Borah, an insurgent progressive who opposed empire.
As I grew to know Bill a bit better, I could see that his admiration for Borah made perfect sense. Like many of the insurgents, Bill was suspicious of all forms of militarism, imperialism, and bigness in any form, whether private or public. Bill had strong libertarian inclinations but was best described as a decentralist. He was very much an independent thinker and full of surprises.
In our conversations, I consistently found Bill to be a source of infectious enthusiasm. He described himself as a Taoist and that too made sense when you got to know him. He had an upbeat, but somewhat fatalistic, attitude toward passing events. He was a wealth of insights on such varied issues as the history of bureaucracy, Chinese traditions of localism, the need to promote alternative forms of higher education outside of the universities, and sustainable housing.
Because of his experiences as a Fulbright Scholar and economist for the U.S. Joint Economic Committee, he had many illustrative stories about the corrupting influence of foreign aid and the military-industrial complex.
Remarkably, Bill had been on Dealey Plaza on the day of the Kennedy assassination. Although very much a radical in his opposition to centralized power, he rejected all the JFK conspiracy theories as nonsense and planned to write a book about it. Bill believed that Oswald did it, and did it alone and that the Warren Commission was essentially right. He often compared Oswald to Herostratus who had burned down the Temple of Artemis just so he would be immortalized in history.
Bill was not just a talker. Even while he taught classes at Florida Atlantic University, he made a success in real estate by making efficient use of small, odd-shaped parcels that might otherwise have gone to waste.
Although retired from his university position, he was still a bundle of energy and future projects. Most recently, he set up the Marina-Huerta Educational Foundation to build “self-help,” affordable, and environmentally sound housing. The Foundation built a community center in Guatemala, and Bill hoped to introduce these techniques to the United States.
It is a great shame that he could not have lived longer to finish some of his projects.
Tags: American History, China, Civil Liberties, Housing, Imperialism, Latin America, Military, Personal Liberty, Surveillance, The State, War 
Bill Marina was a very dear friend who I knew for 34 years, and we have been truly honored to have had him as Research Fellow here at The Independent Institute. As David Beito well notes, he will indeed be greatly missed.
Bill’s wonderful spirit and learned insights have benefited countless people around the world, and we are delighted to have many of his studies available on our web site. Here is just one of the many classics by Bill that I would recommend for all to read:
Egalitarianism and Empire, by William F. Marina
Most recently, Bill joined with us for our Independent Policy Forum in Oakland on April 7th, “What President Obama Should Learn from His Predecessors,” with Ivan Eland and Andrew R. Rutten. The program discussed Ivan’s important and very timely, new book critiquing presidential power, Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity and Liberty, and true to form Bill asked the most learned and challenging of the questions.
As some may know, Bill also sent out lively and insightful email commentaries on a daily basis (and sometimes even more often), covering a vast range of topics pertaining to domestic and international issues, and I had received two such email notes from him just hours before the news arrived of his passing.
May God rest the soul of this courageous and immensely good man.
David Theroux | Jul 7, 2009 | Reply
Bill left us much too soon. He always had a lot of projects in his heart and mind to help those most in need of them. I really don’t think Bill could have lived long enough to complete his projects but his death was untimely. He left a void that can never be filled.
Steve Wolfman | Jul 8, 2009 | Reply
Bill was an inspiration and guiding light to me. We pursued many projects together at Florida Atlantic University’s Small Business Development Center where he wore his business hat. We were about to introduce his sustainable housing project in Jamaica. He unfortunately will never fulfill his dream to complete this project with his god-daughter. May he rest in peace.
Mark Hosang | Jul 8, 2009 | Reply
It hurts to lose any of our talented, prolific, principled people like Bill, but, for me, it hurts in a more personal way because, over thirty years ago, when I was putting together the speakers’ program for the LPUSA NatCon being held in Boston that year, I was fortunate to have Bill be the first invitee to accept. The generosity of insight and respect he showed me went a long way toward enabling the utterly inexperienced, slightly terrified introvert I was to pull off a fabulous program.
One thing I’m wondering about is that as other people have referenced, Bill had a number of manuscripts that, so far as I know have never seen publication (his “The American Revolution as a People’s War” springs to mind ). Can we assume that someone will be looking into remedying that situation?
William Hurst | Jul 13, 2009 | Reply
William Hurst,
Bill Marina’s article, “The American Revolution as a People’s War,” can be found on our web site here. Also, many of Bill’s other key articles and studies are available here.
David Theroux | Jul 13, 2009 | Reply
Dr. Marina had worked with Nathaniel Weyl on one or two books, and I was just trying to contact him concerning any reaction Weyl might have had to Kevin MacDonald’s highly negative perception of Jewry. Sadly, I am two years too late in making the effort; certainly, he would have had much of interest to say about Weyl and MacDonald. Does anyone know if there are any resources from the late Dr. Marina on this subject and if they are available for researchers?
Frank P. Mintz | Jul 18, 2011 | Reply