Lewis Puller Jr.; Pulitzer-Winning Writer

Lewis B. Puller Jr., a disabled Vietnam War veteran who wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiography, committed suicide Wednesday. He was 48.

Laura Massie, a spokeswoman for George Mason University, where Puller was in his second year as a writer-in-residence, said that Puller killed himself. A family friend who spoke on condition of anonymity said Puller shot himself, but Fairfax County police would only say that they were investigating a death at Puller’s residence.

Puller was the son of the most highly decorated Marine in U.S. history, Gen. Lewis (Chesty) Puller.

His book, “Fortunate Son: The Healing of a Vietnam Vet,” is about his life with his father, his Vietnam experiences and his struggle with depression and alcoholism after the war. The book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992.

Puller served as a combat platoon leader in Vietnam until he stepped on an enemy land mine in 1968. The explosion tore away his legs and parts of both hands. He was awarded the Silver Star, two Purple Hearts, the Navy Commendation Medal and the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry.

He returned to Vietnam in August for the first time since the war, and said he was overwhelmed when he met disabled Vietnamese veterans.

“Here I am, sitting on an NVA (North Vietnam Army) soldier’s bed with him,” he said. “You know, our stumps are all tangled up. It was incredible.”

Don M. Boileau, chairman of George Mason’s communications department, said he received a handwritten note from Puller on Wednesday.

“It was a very precise note regarding students’ grading,” Boileau said. “In retrospect, he was wrapping things up. It was very thoughtful. He obviously put a lot into it.”

Puller’s wife, Linda T. (Toddy) Puller, was notified of her husband’s death in Richmond. A state legislator, she was attending a special session of the General Assembly.

“To the list of names of victims of the Vietnam War, add the name of Lewis Puller,” she said in a statement Wednesday night. “He suffered terrible wounds that never really healed.”

Puller was a 1963 graduate of Christchurch School in Saluda, Va. After Vietnam, he attended law school at the College of William and Mary. He worked as a lawyer at the Defense Department before taking a leave of absence to teach at George Mason.

Puller ran unsuccessfully for Congress in eastern Virginia’s 1st District in 1978.

In a 1992 graduation speech at Christchurch School, Puller told the students he was proof that life offered second, third and even fourth chances.

“By the time I graduated from college, I had flunked out of one school and was on academic and disciplinary probation at another,” Puller said. “I was also well on my way to being an out-of-control alcoholic.

“I’m not proud of any of this, and I readily acknowledge that most of my problems, most of my misfortunes, were of my own making.”