“The Hoover Institution lost a colleague and dear friend in Martin Anderson on January 3. Throughout the span of his four decades at the Hoover Institution, he left an indelible mark.
“Anderson was an accomplished academic, earning a Ph.D. from MIT, and went on to be one of the youngest professors to receive tenure at Columbia University. He joined the Hoover Institution in 1971.
“A proud and deserving public servant, Anderson served Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Martin is credited with helping bring an end to the draft for our nation’s military. At the behest of President Reagan, he drafted the Administration’s original economic program. A close adviser to Reagan, he and his wife, Annelise, worked tirelessly to share the former President’s legacy by publishing multiple volumes on Reagan and his life, much of which included Reagan’s own writings.
“Martin and Annelise’s contributions will stand as an important longstanding contribution to this important time of our nation’s history. Our thoughts are with Annelise, and his many friends and family.”
Obituary for Martin Anderson
Martin Anderson died peacefully in his sleep on January 3, 2015 at his home in Portola Valley, CA. He was 78 years old. He is survived by his wife, Annelise, of 49 years and his half-brother, James McHugh, Jr., of Rye, NH, and his wife, Susan, and their two daughters.
Anderson was the Keith and Jan Hurlbut Senior Fellow, emeritus, at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He combined an active academic and writing career with leaves of absence to work in the political campaigns and presidential administrations of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. His final book, co-authored with his wife, Ronald Reagan: Decisions of Greatness, will be published by the Hoover Institution Press in February.
He was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, August 5, 1936, son of Ralph and Evelyn Anderson. He graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College in 1957, received his M.S. in engineering and business administration in 1958 from Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering and the Tuck School of Business, and earned a Ph.D. in industrial management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1962. He married Annelise Graebner September 25, 1965.
Anderson taught finance at the Graduate School of Business, Columbia University, where he was on the faculty from 1962-1968. In 1967 he began advising presidential candidate Richard Nixon on domestic policy and especially on ending the military draft and moving to an all-volunteer armed force, and was director of research during the 1968 campaign. He worked as special assistant to President Richard Nixon and then as a special consultant from 1969 to 1971, when he became a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.
In 1980 Anderson was a senior policy adviser to Ronald Reagan during his presidential campaign, and served Reagan as assistant to the president for policy development, 1981-82, where he was a major contributor to Reagan's economic policy and to policies on missile defense.
Anderson's first book was The Federal Bulldozer: A Critical Analysis of Urban Renewal, 1949-1962 (MIT Press, 1964), a ground-breaking effort to evaluate federal government programs. He also wrote extensively on the military draft, welfare reform, economic policy, and university education. In 1988 Revolution (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich), about the Reagan presidency, was published. Theodore White, historian of presidential campaigns, wrote that "Anderson gave orientation to the Reagan campaign. . . . it was Anderson who shaped the overriding themes of economic discipline and political turnaround."
Anderson co-edited several collections of Reagan's own writings that have influenced considerably the understanding of Reagan, including Reagan, In His Own Hand (2001, The Free Press) and Reagan: A Life in Letters (2003, The Free Press). In 2009 he wrote, with Annelise Anderson, Reagan's Secret War: The Untold Story of His Fight to Save the World from Nuclear Disaster (Crown).
Anderson also served as member, Commission on Critical Choices for Americans, 1973-75; member, Defense Manpower Commission, 1975-76; member, Committee on the Present Danger, 1977-91; member, President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, 1982-85; member, President's Economic Policy Advisory Board, 1982-89; member, President's General Advisory Committee on Arms Control, 1987-93; member, National Commission on the Cost of Higher Education; 1997-98; trustee, Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, 1985-90; member, California Governor's Council of Economic Advisers, 1993-98; chairman, Congressional Policy Advisory Board, 1998-01; member, Defense Policy Advisory Board, 2001; member, Defense Advisory Committee on Military Compensation, 2005; and 2d Lt., Army Security Agency, 1958-59.
Services will be held at the Alta Mesa Funeral Home, 695 Arastradero Road, Palo Alto, CA on Thursday Jan 8, 2015, beginning with viewing at 11:30am and the Funeral Service at 12:30pm. Followed by a reception.
