Obituary : Patriotism Promoter Edward Rankin Dies

Edward Rankin was something of an anachronism in an age of post-Cold War politics, international economics and presidential sex scandals.

As executive director of a Buena Park grass-roots organization to promote patriotism called the Americanism Educational League, he stood for the power of the individual and free enterprise. Most of all, he stood for his country, proudly wrapped in the red, white and blue.

When he died of lymphoma in Canoga Park on Saturday at age 84, some said his passing marked a turning point for the league, organized by Knott’s Berry Farm founder Walter Knott in 1927.

In his role with the league, Rankin spearheaded essay contests that drew thousands of college and high school students, though the numbers have decreased from a decade ago. The college contest was once called the Milton Friedman Essay Contest, named after the conservative Nobel laureate for economics who, for about seven years, judged the contest and dined with the winner.

Rankin also wrote pamphlets and articles that he sent to newspapers nationwide, as well as oversaw a library that included films and videos with titles such as “The Responsibility of American Citizenship,” which were lent to schools and civic groups for free.

The fight to save American patriotism consumed Rankin’s life, said his wife, Beverly. He worked into the night and on weekends to further his cause, she said.

“He was a perfectionist,” said Dean Davisson, public relations consultant for the Americanism Educational League. “He would arm-wrestle over words and punctuation. . . . Because they were about ideals that were so important to him, they had to be perfect.”

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Born in Atlanta, Rankin graduated with a degree in journalism from the University of Georgia, then moved to Los Angeles in 1936. But it was in Orange County that he realized his dream.

Here was the land of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, Robert Schuller and Robert Dornan. Here, the Americanism Educational League found a home. In 1970, he became its executive director.

“The purpose of the Americanism Educational League is to conduct a sustained campaign of public education to promote constitutional principles,” according to the group’s mission statement. It also seeks to advance the private enterprise system and increase individual responsibility, and to encourage the renewal of “those moral and spiritual values that guided our founding fathers in the establishment of this republic.”

The group, which has about 1,700 contributors, also honors conservatives for their contributions to national life, said Steve Knott, nephew of Walter Knott and chairman of the organization’s board of trustees. Past speakers at its annual banquet include Dan Quayle, former drug czar William Bennett and former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates.

But even in Orange County, traditionally viewed as a conservative bastion, patriotism appears to be losing its role as a central tenet. Mark P. Petracca, a UC Irvine political science professor, said that image has been true in the past, though not anymore. “Over the course of the past decade, maybe a little bit more, that motif has waned,” he said.

Petracca pointed to a national political landscape now dominated by a baby-boomer generation more influenced by the Vietnam War than World War II.

“There’s nothing left, it’s just an empty shell,” said Orange County historian Tom Rogers, who is working on a book about county politics titled “Agents’ Orange.” “There isn’t really any respect anymore for the flag, people don’t take patriotism seriously. Even with something like [the movie] ‘Saving Private Ryan,’ they don’t stop to think about the sacrifice for your country. They just think it’s a good movie.”

In addition to his wife, Rankin is survived by five children--Shorter Rankin, Carolyn Mallory, Thomas Rankin, Ann Rankin and Beverly Barela--12 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Memorial services will be at 1 p.m. Sept. 12 at St. James Presbyterian Church, 19414 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana.