Robert Mueller, former director of the FBI, died last week. Upon hearing of his death, President Donald J. Trump tweeted: “Good, I’m glad he’s dead.”
I am not.
Decades before his tenure at the FBI, Mueller was a boy at St. Paul’s School in Concord. I teach philosophy and humanities at St. Paul’s. I also advise the Young Republicans Club. Graduates of St. Paul’s have their names carved on oak panels in the wall. Each day on my way to class, I pass the wall with Mueller’s name.
He was a member of our community. He was a patriot.
Mueller, a lifelong Republican, came to St. Paul’s from Philadelphia. He excelled at sports, captaining the hockey, soccer and lacrosse teams. He graduated in 1962 with the Gordon Medal, our school’s prize for the top male athlete.
After leaving St. Paul’s, Mueller studied politics at Princeton University. He earned his BA in 1966, and then immediately studied for an MA in international relations at New York University.
Mueller joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1968. It’s hard to overstate how remarkable this is. The war in Vietnam was heating up, as was opposition to the war among the American people. The draft did not begin until 1969. Most young men with Mueller’s education and background found ways to avoid service. Some even presented spurious medical claims to keep them safe at home.
Not Mueller.
He would go on to earn the Bronze Star, two Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals, and a Purple Heart. Despite his many later accomplishments, Mueller remained “most proud that the Marine Corps deemed him worthy of leading other Marines.”
Mueller left active-duty service in 1970 to study law at the University of Virginia. He became an elite trial lawyer, and eventually spent more than two decades working for the U.S. Attorney and the Department of Justice. He prosecuted fraud, terrorism and organized crime. Secretary of State James Baker noted Mueller’s steadfast “appreciation for the Constitution and the rule of law.”
In 2001, months before the deadliest terrorist attack in American history, President George W. Bush nominated Mueller to lead the FBI. Such was Mueller’s reputation for competence and impartiality that President Obama retained him at the FBI when Obama took office in 2009. President Obama later asked Mueller to stay at his post until 2013, two years past the usual 10-year term. In his 12 years at the Bureau, Mueller admirably carried out the nearly impossible task of protecting the safety of American citizens without sacrificing civil liberties or respect for the Constitution.
In 2017, Mueller again answered the call to public service. He was appointed Special Counsel to the Department of Justice and tasked with investigating possible collusion between the Russian state and the campaign of Donald J. Trump. Mueller’s task was truly thankless. In the end, his team found ample evidence of Russian interference on behalf of the Trump campaign, yet no compelling evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Mueller’s report raised the ire of the left and the right. Some Democrats accused him of not doing his job. Some Republicans, including President Trump, never forgave Mueller for leading what they call a witch hunt.
There are many things that should have been said after Mueller’s passing. “Thank you, sir” comes to mind. “Good, I’m glad he’s dead” wasn’t one of them.
Character matters. During his years at St. Paul’s School, Mueller would have recited the School Prayer hundreds of times: “Grant, O Lord, that in all the joys of life we may never forget to be kind. Help us to be unselfish in friendship, thoughtful of those less happy than ourselves and eager to bear the burdens of others; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.”
How differently a life is lived when one learns to value service and humility rather than pride, narcissism and petty vengeance.
Mueller was a veteran, an officer of the court and a public servant. I look forward to the day when, upon the passing of such a man, the Commander in Chief finds it within himself to simply say “requiescat in pace.”
Joshua Duclos, PhD, is an instructor of humanities at St. Paul’s School in Concord.