Back when he was a House member from Wyoming, Dick Cheney was part of a congressional delegation that visited the Soviet Union in the 1980s. During a lull in the schedule, Cheney and his colleagues were sitting around trying to entertain themselves when one of their wives decided to administer personality tests. The results included professions for which the members would be well suited. Cheney’s ideal job? A funeral director.

And so another member of the old “war on terror” team has left the world. Dick Cheney, who served as the most powerful vice president in the history of the United States during the two-term administration of George W Bush (2001-2009), died on Monday at the age of 84. According to a memorial statement issued by his family, Cheney was “a great and good man who taught his children and grandchildren to love our country, and to live lives of courage, honor, love, kindness, and fly fishing”.

Some years ago, still a college student, I was in the waiting hall of the American Enterprise Institute to meet a friend. Unbeknownst to me, a board meeting was happening behind the wall I was leaning against. A man walked out of the room and walked through the hall. I stared at him, frozen. One of my heroes, Dick Cheney, had locked eyes with me, as I was incapable of speaking. “Hello, sir!” said the former vice president and simply passed me. I was still paralyzed.

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