The death of Barry Goldwater brought many memories. My first thoughts were back in 1964 when I was the Republican candidate for the New York City Council in Eastern Queens. It was a special election, and I found myself running with Barry Goldwater at the head of the ticket and my former employer, Ken Keating, the U.S. Senate candidate against Bobby Kennedy. From the beginning it was chaotic. Democrats featured a TV advertisement with a little girl picking daisies. In the background, an atomic bomb was exploding -- all to finger Barry Goldwater as trigger happy. He could not be trusted was the theme.

There were extremists on both sides during that election. Campaigning at the Jamaica subway station, people were more interested in opposing or supporting Goldwater than any other element of the election. To many, Barry Goldwater was a right wing bomb thrower. As an interesting footnote to history, Lyndon Johnson won the election in a landslide -- only to go on to escalate the Viet Nam conflict to a point where the nation was torn apart. I wonder who was "trigger happy"?

My direct contact with Barry Goldwater was to come after the 1964 election. Richard Nixon reached out to me and asked that I temporarily join his small staff. With Goldwater defeated, many newspapers were predicting an end to the Grand Old Party. Republicans knew they were in trouble, and Richard Nixon started to receive overtures from across the country. I readily joined him and worked with RoseMary Woods in Nixon's Manhattan office at 20 Broad Street.

Traveling with Mr. Nixon across the country, writing and providing political research, I soon found myself on the way, with Mr. Nixon, in mid-November of 1964, to attend a meeting at the Waldorf Towers with former President Dwight Eisenhower and Barry Goldwater. There was clearly tension in the air as the meeting started. Barry Goldwater felt he had been let down by most moderate to liberal Republicans. And he was probably correct in that thesis. With the Republican Party in shambles, what could come from this November meeting? Would Goldwater bolt the party and start a new national conservative party or would he remain in the fold?

After the meeting, President Eisenhower asked me to take notes on what Barry Goldwater told the press. Taking the elevator from the 35th floor to the tower's lobby, I joined 100 or more reporters and TV cameras jammed into a very small space. True to his commitment, Barry Goldwater pledged his allegiance to the Republican Party and refused to fire the controversy -- even though reporters tried repeatedly to have him criticize fellow Republicans. When I reported the results of the press conference to Eisenhower and Nixon, both men appeared relieved.

My next meeting with Barry Goldwater took place in Garden City during October of 1969. As chairman of a Republican dinner, I had the chance to chat with him and reminisce about that Waldorf Astoria meeting back in 1964. He had clearly not lost his sense of humor and thoughtfulness. He was a tremendous hit at the event. Several days after the dinner, I received a great photograph of us with a beautiful handwritten inscription. I have always treasured that photo, and with his passing, the sentiments are even more meaningful.

Barry Goldwater paved the way for Ronald Reagan, the reform of welfare, smaller government, and a balanced budget. He was a pioneer who became more revered as Americans reflected on his philosophy. Goldwater was just ahead of his time in 1964 when he carried the conservative torch.