Legendary conservative movement leader David Keene passed away March 8, at the age of 80 years. Here at NR, Grover Norquist wrote a beautiful tribute to Keene and his many accomplishments.

As Politico wrote back in 2011, “Keene deserves a major share of the credit for the growth of the Conservative Political Action Conference from a sleepy conference to one of the few must-attend annual events on the GOP calendar.”

CPAC is under new management now.

As far as I can tell, CPAC has not mentioned Keene’s death or paid tribute to him in any fashion on its web site, its press releases, X account, Instagram account, Facebook account, YouTube account, or anywhere else. If anyone at CPAC did publicly acknowledge Keene’s passing, they have hidden it well.

Notice that even the New York Times published a lengthy obituary of Keene, writing, “he had the ear of Republican presidential hopefuls from Ronald Reagan to Mitt Romney, and the grass roots groups he led, including the conservative union — sponsor of the yearly Conservative Political Action Conference, known as CPAC — helped push the party’s politics further rightward.”

The Washington Times, where Keene worked as an editor, called him “a towering figure in the growth of the modern conservative movement.”

My old friend Lisa De Pasquale, the former director of the Conservative Political Action Conference, wrote over at the Daily Wire, “I saw him compromise with people he didn’t like and who didn’t like him. I saw him defend people he disagreed with on issues because it was the right thing to do. I saw him make decisions based on what was best for the conference attendees and nothing else.”

But apparently no one at CPAC thought Keene’s death was worth even issuing a brief statement.

Keene was president of the National Rifle Association from 2011 to 2013. Similarly, I cannot find a statement about Keene’s passing on the organization’s web site, press releases, X account, Facebook account, Instagram account, YouTube account, or anywhere else. As with CPAC, if anyone at the NRA acknowledged Keene’s death, it is quite difficult to find.

Some institutions have no appreciation for their own histories.

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