Lawler was appointed to President Bush's Council on Bioethics. He served until the council was terminated by President Obama in 2009. In 2010, Lawler (with Marc Guerra of Assumption College) received a major grant from the Science of Virtues project at the University of Chicago for a series of path-breaking conferences at Berry College on the theme of "Stuck with Virtue". This conferences has generated several important publications, including A Political Companion to Walker Percy (edited with Brian Smith) and Descartes, Locke, Darwin, and the Science of Modern Virtue. Lawler also became a popular and influential blogger, at both "Rightly Understood" at Big Think and "Postmodern Conservative," originally at First Things and then at National Review Online. His posts and short essays are often and widely reprinted. The first volume of his best short essays -- Allergic to Crazy—has been published by St. Augustine's Press. And his American Heresies and Higher Education is forthcoming in 2016. Personal life Lawler was the son of Patricia Ann Fullerton Lawler and Thomas Comerford Lawler, the nephew of Ronald David Lawler, OFMCap, and the brother of Thomas Aquin "Quin" Lawler and Gregory Francis Lawler. His father worked for the Central Intelligence Agency from 1951 to 1977, and also worked in patristics, serving as a co-editor, from 1964 to 1991, of the Ancient Christian Writers series published first by Newman Press, and then by Paulist Press. He likewise translated Saint Augustine: Sermons for Christmas and Epiphany, and The Letters of Saint Jerome for that series. With his brother, Father Roland, and the future cardinal, Donald Wuerl, he wrote an adult catechism, The Teaching of Christ. Peter Augustine Lawler was survived by his brothers, his wife, Rita Lawler, his daughter, Catherine Lawler Jackson, and his grandchildren, Henry Augustus Jackson and Molly Jackson. Publications Lawler, Peter Augustine (2002). "Aliens in America: The Strange Truth about Our Souls." ISI Books. Lawler, Peter Augustine (1999). "Postmodernism Rightly Understood" Rowman & Littlefield. Lawler, Peter Augustine & Robert Schaefer (editors) (2000). "American Political Rhetoric" (4th ed) Rowman & Littlefield. Lawler, Peter Augustine (2005). "Stuck with Virtue: The American Individual and Our Biotechnological Future." ISI Books. Lawler, Peter Augustine (2007). "Homeless and At Home in America." St. Augustine's Press. Lawler, Peter Augustine (2010). "Modern and American Dignity." ISI Books. References External links 1951 births 2017 deaths DeSales University alumni Berry College faculty American political consultants Political philosophers American political scientists