The New York Times obituary encapsulates the memories in a tidy Buckleyesque sentence:

William F. Buckley Jr., who marshaled polysyllabic exuberance, famously arched eyebrows and a refined, perspicacious mind to elevate conservatism to the center of American political discourse, died Wednesday at his home in Stamford, Conn.

For encomiums (or as he would surely have had it, "encomia") from friends -- a few of the millions of minds he enriched and hearts he touched -- see these pages at The American Spectator and his own National Review.