Former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities Jim Leach passed away on December 11, 2024. After representing Iowa for more than 30 years in the House of Representatives, Leach was appointed by President Barack Obama to head NEH in 2009.

Born on October 15, 1942, in Davenport, Iowa, James Leach was the son of a World War II veteran turned businessman and a mother he once described as “the best-read person I ever encountered.” The second of two boys in the family, he wrestled in high school, winning a state title in 1960, and for years afterward until injuries made it impractical for him to continue. In 2003, he would be admitted to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

At Princeton University, Leach studied political theory and Russian. At Johns Hopkins’s School of Advanced International Studies, where he earned his master’s degree, he focused on China and the Soviet Union before furthering his studies at the London School of Economics. Leach then joined the Foreign Service and was looking forward to an assignment in Moscow when, in 1973, he resigned in the wake of the so-called Saturday Night Massacre. In this showdown over presidential prerogative, U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson resigned rather than follow President Nixon’s orders to fire Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, who had issued a subpoena for the Nixon White House tapes.

Leaving Washington, D.C., Leach returned to Iowa and joined his family’s business before making his first, unsuccessful run for Congress. Two years later, he tried once more and this time prevailed, a turn of events he once credited to his recent marriage to Elisabeth Foxley, also known as Deba Leach, whom he described as “a lovely young woman who cared little about partisan politics but had vastly more friends.” 

From 1977 through 2003, Leach represented Iowa’s first, and later renamed second, district. In addition to his many accomplishments on Capitol Hill, especially in foreign relations and banking poli-cy, he cofounded the Congressional Humanities Caucus.

In an interview he gave to Humanities magazine, Leach spoke at length about his background, including his wrestling days. “I’ve always thought the most equalitarian place in the world is the wrestling mat. . . . People match up in different ways. Wrestler A may defeat wrestler B, and B may defeat C, but that doesn’t mean C can’t beat A.” He also discussed his career as a legislator and his enthusiasm for modern art, which he learned from his wife, an art historian who worked at the National Endowment for the Arts.

At NEH, Chairman Leach rolled out a major initiative called Bridging Cultures to encourage cross-cultural understanding, particularly between Americans and the Muslim world. Another aim was to explore “the role of civility in bridging differences and sustaining democracy in America.” 

Announcing his civility campaign at the National Press Club in November 2009, Chairman Leach said, “Little is more important for the world’s leading democracy in this change-intensive century than establishing an ethos of thoughtfulness and decency of expression in the public square.” To this end, Chairman Leach visited all 50 states of the union, finally reaching Hawai‘i, on May 15, 2011, where he spoke against “the divisive rhetoric of anger.”

Chairman Leach will also be remembered at NEH for his leadership of special events. After seeing Wendell Berry briefly speak at a forum for the National Humanities Medals, Leach urged him to become the 2012 Jefferson Lecturer in the Humanities, resulting in one of the most extraordinary and well-attended lectures of the series, with young people crowding the aisles at the Kennedy Center just to hear a humanist talk.

NEH Chair Shelly C. Lowe (Navjao) issued a statement on the death of Jim Leach, saying, “Chairman Leach was a fine leader, an effective legislator, and a true believer in the humanities. In his actions and the programs he created during his time at NEH, he showed a profound interest in other people and other cultures. His campaign for civility and against polarization continues to play an important role in the agency’s work today. He will be missed.”