...Mr. Cheney first met Mr. Merrill in the early 1980s. They met through mutual friends, such as Ken Adelman and Paul Wolfowitz. Their relationship "blossomed" when Mr. Merrill hired Lynne Cheney to write for Washingtonian magazine.
"We saw them primarily socially," Mr. Cheney said.
But their relationship moved to the professional realm when Mr. Cheney became secretary of defense under George H.W. Bush in 1989, and he needed an ambassador to NATO.
"I sent Phil to be Assistant Secretary-General of NATO," Mr. Cheney said. "He had a huge interest in defense issues. He had an interest not only in making policy but implementing it."
Mr. Cheney said he valued Mr. Merrill because of his brains rather than for his politics or ideology.
"Phil had friends on both sides of the aisle," the vice president said. "He was not a rabid partisan."
So when Mr. Cheney, as vice president in 2002, needed a president of the Export-Import Bank who could cruise through Senate confirmation, he looked to Mr. Merrill.
"He was great at it," Mr. Cheney said of Mr. Merrill's two year tenure at the bank. "I've never seen Phil have a down day. He went flat out all the time with everything he did, including running the Export-Import Bank."
The Merrills and the Cheneys always managed to mix public service and pleasure, mostly around family and often around water. The vice president said he never sailed with Mr. Merrill, but he recalled a power boat trip down the Severn River with their daughters.
The Sunday before Merrill's disappearance, the Cheneys joined many of Mr. Merrill's family and friends at their annual spring party in their Arnold home.
"Phil and Ellie had come to our new place in St. Michaels," Mr. Cheney said, of their home on the Eastern Shore town.
"I will miss his excitement, his love of life and everything to do with it," Mr. Cheney said...
