Haywood Hillyer III, lawyer and devoted Republican Party member who fought David Duke's campaign, dies at 72 Times Picayune 04-30-2010 Submitted By NOVA ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ Haywood Hillyer III, a lawyer and Republican Party national committeeman known for helping lead the fight against David Duke in the contentious 1991 gubernatorial election, died of cancer Wednesday in New Orleans, his son, Quin, said. He was 72. Mr. Hillyer practiced mostly labor law during a career that spanned nearly 40 years, and during the same period, he devoted himself to building the Republican Party in Louisiana. In 1960, he was among a group of college students assembled by William F. Buckley to discuss conservative issues and activism at the writer's Connecticut home, according to an article recounting the event by his son in the American Spectator. He was the founder and editor of an early conservative college newspaper, The Liberator. A few years later Mr. Hillyer was among a small corps of supporters helping Metairie lawyer Dave Treen build the small Republican party from a base of fewer than 10,000 voters. Treen later became the state's first Republican governor, and 750,000 Louisiana voters are now Republicans. "He told stories later of just starting out, and Dave had so little money he didn't have much furniture, so they'd just sit around on the floor planning a campaign," Quin Hillyer said. Mr. Hillyer served as a member of the Republican National Committee from 1988 to 1993, and for 25 years he was a Republican state committeeman. It was during his tenure as one of three Louisiana members of the national committee that he worked behind the scenes to block former Ku Klux Klan member David Duke from winning the party's nomination for governor in 1991, writing a statement denouncing Duke's candidacy. And at the state party's nominating convention, he helped physically block Duke's path as he tried to rush to an empty podium, in an apparent scheme to incite delegates and throw the convention into chaos, Quin Hillyer wrote in an article for the American Spectator recounting the event. Mr. Hillyer delayed Duke sufficiently, allowing Chairman Billy Nungesser to grab hold of the podium and microphone and thwart Duke's effort. Though he was unable to win the party's official nomination, Duke did run for governor as a Republican under the state's open primary system, losing in a runoff to Edwin Edwards. Mr. Hillyer was also a lover of jazz. He donated to Tulane's Hogan Jazz Archives a series of 1958 interviews in which he and friends recalled hearing local jazz pioneers playing at the social functions of their youth. Mr. Hillyer was a graduate of Tulane University and its law school. He practiced for many years at what is now the Milling Benson Woodward law firm. He was also an amateur sailor and racer. Survivors include two sons, Haywood Hillyer IV of New Orleans and Richard Quin Edmonson Hillyer of Alexandria, Va.; a stepson, Tyler Wood Duncan; a stepdaughter, Halley Randolph Rash, both of the Dallas area; a sister, Penelope Law of Harahan; and a brother, Carter Hillyer of Pass Christian, Miss. A memorial service with jazz procession will be held Monday at 11 a.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church, 1329 Jackson Ave.