The Founding of Mercy Corps
In 1979, Wead, Dan O'Neill and Pat Boone organized the first Washington Charity Awards. First
Lady Rosalynn Carter hosted the guests in an East Room reception. The following year, the
three men organized Mercy Corps to help save boat people fleeing Southeast Asia . Five First
Ladies from Lady Bird Johnson to Nancy Reagan to Laura Bush have served as honorary
chairpersons for the event. And Mercy Corps has become one of the world’s premier relief
organizations, distributing more than $500 million in food and medicine around the world.
Early Writing Career
Raised in an evangelical minister’s home, Wead began a writing career in the 1970’s by
explaining the Catholic Charismatic Renewal to Protestant audiences. Early titles include
Catholic Charismatics and Tonight They’ll Kill a Catholic, a story of renewal in Northern Ireland.
Wead spoke to both Protestant and Catholic audiences in ecumenical gatherings around the
world.
In 1970 he began writing “instant books” each of which became the bestselling books on their
subject. People’s Temple, People’s Tomb was the story of the Jonestown disaster, The Iran
Crisis, recounted the hostage crisis with Iran and the Ayatollah Khomeini and finally, Reagan in
Pursuit of the Presidency became the campaign biography for the Reagan team. It sold 800,000
copies.
In 1988, after working for four yeas with then Vice President George H. W. Bush, Wead and the
Vice President co-authored a campaign biography entitled George Bush: Man of Integrity.
Political Work
Beginning in 1984, off an on over the next sixteen years, Wead served as an advisor to both
President George H. W. Bush and the son, George W. Bush. In March of 1987, George W. Bush
became Mr. Wead’s direct boss and the two fashioned an “evangelical strategy” that helped win
81% of the born again vote and thus helped elect the father president.
After leaving the White House in 1990, Wead moved to Arizona and ran a successful statewide
initiative forcing the state legislature to have a two thirds majority before raising taxes. The
unlikely success of the initiative launched Wead into a congressional race. He won a bitterly
contested three way primary but lost in the general election of 1992 when Bill Clinton beat
George H. W. Bush in the national contest.
Compassionate Conservative
In 1976 Wead gave a speech on the need for conservative Republicans to make the point that
they cared about people and that their politics were not just driven by numbers. He called
himself a “Compassionate Conservative” and a “bleeding heart conservative.” The tape was
widely circulated in corporate and political circles.
In 1984 Wead coauthored the Courage of a Conservative with James Watt. the book was
published by Simon and Schuster. Chapter Five was entitled “Compassionate Conservatives”
and was a description of the philosophy that would one day be promoted by the campaign of
George W. Bush.
In 1992, as a candidate for congress, Wead wrote a booklet, It’s Time for a Change. It begins
with chapter one, “the compassionate conservative.”
Throughout the Bush campaign of 1987-99 Wead traveled with George W. Bush, the candidate’s
son, on private and commercial airplanes, campers, car caravans, Winnebago’s, and in
conversations Wead shared this philosophy with the future president.
Corporate Speaker
Since 1974, Doug Wead has been a featured speaker at corporate and trade events around he
world, speaking at more than a thousand venues, including many of the world’s largest soccer
stadiums and coliseums on six continents. His tapes and cd’s have sold millions of copies.
He has shared the stage with Art Linkletter, Norman Vincent Peale, Zig Ziglar, Dennis Waitely,
Bob Proctor, Mark Victor Hansen, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and many others.
Presidential History
In 1988, after George H. W. Bush won the election, Doug Wead wrote a memorandum for the
Bush family on what happens to presidential children. It was at the behest of the first son,
George W. Bush. Although parts of the study have appeared in national magazines, the
complete study has never been made public and is still a private document. Among other
points, Wead established how frequently sons of presidents seek the office themselves and
wrote about that possibility for firstborn, George W. Bush. It is the earliest known document that
discusses such a possibility.
The memorandum became the beginning of a lifelong study of presidential families and
culminated with the writing of All the Presidents Children. A second book, The Raising of a
President featured the parents of presidents. It is the first book every written on the subject.
Mr. Wead is now collaborating with Mary Achor, a writer-researcher who has helped write several
of Wead’s earlier books, on a third installment in the trilogy on presidents’ families. It will
feature the siblings of the presidents.
In the process of his writings, Mr. Wead interviewed ten presidents and first ladies and 17 of the
37 living presidential children.
Canyonville Christian Academy
In addition to his work as a writer and pundit, Wead serves as president of Canyonville Christian
Academy in Canyonville , Oregon . The private, boarding high school, founded in 1924, is now
an international school with students from 22 nations. It has won academic awards and has
seen its prestigious seminars carried by C-SPAN.
Family
Mr. Wead and his wife, Myriam, who helps write and edit his works live in Northern Virginia .
They have five children: Shannon, Scott, Joshua, Chloe and Camille.
Ronald Reagan honors Doug Wead for his work in charity in this video.
| Doug Wead is a presidential historian and corporate speaker known for his philanthropic work around the world. He has been an advisor to two presidents and served as a Special Assistant to the President in the Bush, Senior White House. He is the author of more that thirty books, translated into thirty languages, including the New York Times bestseller and number one Amazon.com, All the Presidents’ Children and The Raising of a President. |
