George Henry Archibald brings passion to the business of writing. He’s from the old school that sees the role of a writer as a kind of poet who serves no master. Writing, and journalism in particular, is a noble calling to right wrongs, set the record straight and give voice to the powerless. It sounds a bit sentimental, but it is based on an experience George Archibald’s father, George William Archibald, encountered that shaped his worldview, and ultimately, the thinking of the junior George himself. George’s father raced horses for most of his life. At the onset of World War II, George Sr. found himself in Great Britain in a country with war fever.

Although he was an American, George’s father joined a tank corps and distinguished himself throughout the liberation of France, Belgium and Holland, and was mentioned in King George VI’s dispatches for valor during the Battle of the Bulge. His medals included two British bronze stars and the King’s 1939-1945 campaign medals. He proudly wore his uniform and medals on horseback in June 1952 as leader of Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation celebration in Newmarket,  the headquarters of British thoroughbred horse racing.

By the end of World War II, however, when the senior Archibald was ready to return to the United States, the American consulate refused to honor a request for a renewed passport. They said George Sr. had pledged an oath of allegiance to a foreign power, England. No amount of paperwork or rationale would sway the leadership and citizenship was denied.

For journalist George Archibald, the system with all its checks and balances is a marvel, but one that can choke when the bureaucracy swells with rigidity that suffers no exemptions. His father’s painful encounter of doing his duty at the expense of his citizenship provided the motivation to hunt down government inefficiency and expose it. After a career in government reporting, George Archibald is a writer who has good instincts on identifying the inconsistencies of government’s big animal as a part of the curative. He sees his mission as informing others of the problem for them to correct the problem and has made a career of writing skillfully while on a deadline. He knows that the best feature writers have internalized the ability to arrange the facts of an article from most important to least important while keeping a lively tempo. News reporters often arrange the facts like Dominoes, one after the other. The feature writer keeps this order in mind while working to weave information throughout in a kind of web.

In late 1997, his editor asked him to pen an obituary on a political figure. George knew he had to write fast, but resorted to a feature story approach to include quotations, anecdotes and the kind of background that will help readers who are unfamiliar with the name L. Brent Bozell understand his impact in the world of visceral politics. His article is a sophisticated combination of the Domino approach woven together with a theme that this fallen figure, while controversial, was a person who is worth remembering for his influence in the shaping of the political landscape.

In preparing for the article, George called Bozell’s friends to get their reactions. For conservatives, this ordinary obituary served as a kind of eulogy to a movement as well as a man.

This is an excerpt from Dr. Michael Ray Smith’s book FeatureWriting.net. Used with permission.

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