Journalist and conservative activist Joseph F. Borda III dies

Joseph Francis Borda III, a retired former journalist and conservative political activist who had been a National Press Club member for 10 years, died September 17 at Frederick Memorial Hospital in Frederick, Md., after a brief illness. Borda, 69, lived in Brunswick, Md.

Borda, who joined the Club in 2002, was senior editor for the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation from 2003 until 2009. He retired a few months after the death of the organization's founder, conservative strategist Paul M. Weyrich, who had hired him. In that job Borda produced Weyrich's weekly radio broadcast, "The Right Hour," served as Weyrich's press secretary, and edited, wrote and researched articles on public issues and politics.

Prior to that he had spent more than three years covering local government for the Times Community Newspaper organization in Northern Virginia, including The Loudoun Times-Mirror and the Clarke Times-Courier. Borda, who was a lifelong train buff, also was a frequent free-lance writer about railroads and mass transit.

Borda was a native of Washington, D.C., where his father was the International Monetary Fund's first personnel director. He credited his father with having inspired his interest in government service and politics. He worked on Capitol Hill in a number of administrative positions for members of Congress during his college and post-college years.

He attended the University of North Carolina, and obtained his bachelor's degree in 1979 from the University of Michigan. Following graduation, he worked in a variety of key finance and accounting positions with suppliers in the automotive industry.

Borda interest in conservative politics started with 1964, the first year he was eligible to vote. He worked that year for the Barry Goldwater campaign for the presidency. Borda later twice was elected to the Ann Arbor, Mich., city council as a Republican from a predominantly Democratic ward, starting in 1989.

He moved from Michigan to Gaithersburg, Md., in 1994. He then relocated to Loudoun County, Va., before settling in Brunswick in 2004.

Survivors include his wife of 13 years, Patti Snodgrass Borda, and a daughter, Virginia Jackson Snodgrass Borda, both of Brunswick, and one brother, Walter J. Borda of Northville, Mich.