George Will Biography
George Will is an American libertarian-conservative political commentator and author. He is one of the most influential conservative voices in America today and has been for decades. He previously worked as a regular columnist for The Washington Post and provides commentary for NBC News and MSNBC. George also won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1977.
Will was born and raised in Champaign, Illinois, United States. He attended high school at University Laboratory High School in Urbana, Illinois. Afterwards, he enrolled at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in religion. He continued his studies in England, where George attended Magdalen College, Oxford, and graduated with degrees in philosophy, politics and economics. Furthermore, he also holds a doctorate in political science from Princeton University and a Ph.D.
His first job was working as an aide for Republican Senator Gordon Allott of Colorado. After that, Will taught political philosophy at Michigan State University’s James Madison College and the University of Toronto. Likewise, he also taught at Harvard University in 1995 and in 1998. In early 1973, Will became the Washington editor of the conservative biweekly magazine National Review. Later that year he also began writing for The Washington Post. In 1976, he became a contributing editor at Newsweek, writing a biweekly back-page column until 2011. His columns for the Post earned him the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1977.
During the 1980 US presidential campaign, Will helped Republican candidate Ronald Reagan prepare for a debate with incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter and saw a stolen instruction book belonging to Carter. After the debate, Will praised Reagan’s performance without revealing that he helped him prepare. Will said that he did not know that the instruction book had been stolen and that he had discarded it as useless anyway.
Before joining Fox News, Will worked as a news analyst for ABC News and was a founding member of ABC’s This Week panel with David Brinkley in 1981. That year, he also began making appearances on the political talk show Agronsky & Company. Frederick joined Fox News in 2013, where he worked until 2017. On May 8, 2017, it was announced that George would work at MSNBC and NBC as a political contributor and would also provide regular political contributions on programs such as Today, Morning Joe. and The 11th Hour.
In addition, he also published three books on political theory, Statecraft as Soulcraft: What Government Does (1983), The New Season: A Spectator’s Guide to the 1988 Election (1987), and Restoration: Congress, Term Limits and The Recovery of Deliberative Democracy (1992). In 1990, Will published Men At Work: The Craft of Baseball, which topped The New York Times bestseller list for two months. More recently, Will published a book as A Nice Little Place on the North Side: Wrigley Field at One Hundred (2014).
As a libertarian conservative, George opposed Barak Obama and George W. Bush’s stimulus plans. His proposals were for a minimum wage and the creation of voluntary personal retirement accounts in order to reduce the federal cost of Social Security. In 2013, he wrote a proposal from the “relentlessly liberal” Sherrod Brown to break up consolidated banks and conglomerates from the financial industry, ending “too big to fail” by restoring the Glass-Steagall Act. Will has received several awards for his work, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005. Additionally, he has received honorary doctorates from several universities.
George will grow old
George is 81 years old as of 2023. He was born on May 4, 1941, in Champaign, Illinois, United States. Furthermore, he celebrates his birthday on May 4th every year.
George Will’s wife
Will has been married to Mari Maseng since 1991. They have one child, a son named David, who was born in 1992 and lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Together he has four children, three from his previous marriage. Maseng is a political consultant and speechwriter responsible for communications for Rick Perry’s 2012 presidential campaign. She previously worked on Michele Bachmann’s 2012 presidential campaign. She was also the former communications director for Senator Bob Dole.
George is getting divorced
Early George was married to Madeleine and they had three children, namely Victoria, Geoffrey and Jonathan. Madeleine was Jonathan’s eldest daughter, who was born in 1972 with Down syndrome, which Will occasionally wrote about in his column. However, in 1989, he and Madeleine divorced after 22 years of marriage.
George Will family
Will was born in Champaign, Illinois, to Louise and Frederick L. Will. He and a sister were raised in Champaign. His father taught philosophy at the University of Illinois and his mother edited children’s encyclopedias while running the household.
George Will’s net worth
George has an estimated net worth of around $4 million dollars. His career as a newspaper columnist, journalist and author allowed him to lead a modest lifestyle.