Charles A. McManus Jr.; GOP Leader

Charles A. McManus Jr., 68, a conservative Republican leader and former president of the Americans for Constitutional Action. He spent 16 years with the nonpartisan group, which promotes conservative candidates for Congress. Through three Republican presidential administrations, McManus worked in the Agriculture, Energy and Interior departments. A native of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., he studied business and government at Kings College, the Wyoming Seminary School of Business and Temple University, and later lectured on politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. In 1979, McManus served as national director of the Draft Haig Committee to promote a presidential candidacy for retired Gen. Alexander M. Haig Jr., who had served as White House chief of staff for Richard Nixon. An avid gardener, McManus was a trustee of the Friends of the National Arboretum. On Wednesday in Bowie, Md., after a stroke.