Obituary of Bruce Clinton Ladd, Jr.

Bruce Clinton Ladd, Jr., 84, a journalist, author, government official and corporate officer, died February 18, 2020 at his Carolina Meadows home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, from a toxic mix of heart disease, diabetes and multiple myeloma.

**PLEASE NOTE THE MEMORIAL SERVICE AT CAROLINA MEADOWS HAS BEEN POSTPONED**

Born four minutes after his twin brother, Barton Dyer Ladd, on January 18, 1936, in Chicago, IL, Ladd was the son of Bruce Clinton Ladd of Chicago and Dorothy Dyer Ladd of Kankakee, IL.  After his marriage to Delores (Dolly) Jean Holbo Ladd of DeKalb, IL, and his graduation from Northern Illinois University with a degree in English/Journalism in 1958 was a newspaper editor for Paddock Publications.

In 1964, he served as press secretary in Charles H. Percy’s gubernatorial campaign in Illinois and became the first suburban journalist to be awarded the American Political Science Association’s coveted Congressional Fellowship in Washington, D.C.  In 1965, then-Congressman Donald R. Rumsfeld (R-IL) asked Ladd to join his congressional staff as legislative director where he played a key role in the drafting and passage of the federal “Freedom of Information Act” (Federal Public Records Law, 5 U.S.C. 552). That same year, his first book, Operation Enlightenment, drew national acclaim for its analysis of the Republican Party’s communications programs. His second book, Crisis in Credibility, investigate the federal government’s practices of unwarranted secrecy, news management and outright deceit. The 1968 book sold 30,000 copies, was translated into several languages, and won a commendation for research from Sigma Delta Chi, the national journalism society.

Ladd was invited in 1969 to become a member of President Richard M. Nixon’s White House staff where he served as both a communications advisor and senior recruiter. Two years later he became deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. State Department where he chaired U.S. delegations to diplomatic conferences to negotiate intellectual and industrial property treaties. His accomplishments in protecting U.S. patents, copyrights and trademarks led to commendations from both the State and Commerce departments.

In 1975, while a partner at Kornmeier, Ladd & Buswell, a public policy consulting firm in Washington, Ladd founded the Emil Verban Memorial Society, a Chicago Cubs fan club based in the nation’s capital that grew to 750 members, including Presidents Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, and Barack Obama, former Senator Hilary Rodham Clinton, U.S. senators and congressman, business leaders, government executives and journalists. (Ladd consistently denied that the Society was a lobbying organization, preferring to describe it as “an association of friends allied in the belief that the Chicago Cubs will win a World Series in our lifetimes.”)  In 1980, Ladd was named vice president of government relations at Motorola, Inc., an Illinois-based electronics manufacturer. That same year, he was appointed to President-Elect Reagan’s transition team and eight years later to the transition team for President-Elect George H.W. Bush. He also served on President-Elect Bush’s inaugural committee in 2001.

The U.S. Semiconductor Industry Association honored Ladd in 1986 for his contributions to the U.S.-Japan Semiconductor Agreement that preserved U.S. technological advancement. A year later he was invited to participate in the Japanese Business Study Program in Tokyo, Japan. He retired from Motorola in 1997 and moved from Washington to Chapel Hill, NC.

In his definitive book about his family in 2003, Ladd recorded the arrival of his maternal forebears in America on The Mayflower in 1620 and of the coming ashore of the first Ladd in Virginia in 1640. When he died, add was working on his fourth book, The Lincoln Nine: Illinoisans Who Made Our 16th President Great. He was a member of the Journalism Hall of Fame at Northern Illinois University, a two-term member of the university’s alumni board, a member of the University of North Carolina Humanities Advisory Board, a past member of his local Affordable Housing Task Force, a communicant at the Chapel of the Cross, and an inveterate tennis player.

Ladd is survived by his wife of 63 years, Delores (Dolly) of Chapel Hill; daughters Laura J. Ladd of Chesapeake, VA, and Diane Ladd of Chapel Hill; son Bruce Ladd III of Chapel Hill, brother Barton (Janice) of AZ; grandchildren, Brandon Foster and Megan Conklin; great grandchildren, Camden and Raegan Foster; an aunt, Katherine Dyer Knight; and six cousins.

Ladd requested that memorials be considered for The Rumsfeld Foundation, 1030 15th St., N.W. (BI #366) Washington, D.C. 20005; or the North Carolina Open Government Coalition, Elon University, Campus Box 2850, Elon, NC 27224; or the You are the Light Fund at Chapel of the Cross, 304 E. Franklin St., Chapel Hill, NC 27514; or the Carolina Meadows’ Remembrance & Gift Fund, 100 Carolina Meadows, Chapel Hill, NC 27517.

The Ladd family is under the care of Walker's Funeral Home of Chapel Hill.