Tom Ellis saw his chance, and he took it.

Which is one reason why Ellis, the 87-year old pipe-puffing Raleigh barrister, will be honored Wednesday by the conservative movement he helped build.

Ellis never held elective office, nor has he ever been a public figure. But for the past 50 years, arguably, no Tar Heel has been more politically influential than he -- as the chief strategist for Sen. Jesse Helms, helping elect John East and Lauch Faircloth to the Senate, elevating his friends and proteges to the federal bench and shaping the modern conservative movement.

Ellis' signal moment occurred in 1976, when he almost single-handedly rescued the career of Ronald Reagan.

At the time, Reagan's political career seemed near an end. He had lost a string of GOP primaries to President Ford, and it seemed likely that the North Carolina primary would provide another nail in his coffin.

Ellis thought Reagan's campaign was being mismanaged by his national staff, who were portraying Reagan as a pragmatic California governor. So Ellis, who headed Helms' political organization, commandeered the state Reagan campaign and began running ads highlighting Reagan's conservatism, most notably his opposition to the Panama Canal Treaty. Ellis let Reagan be Reagan.

Reagan won North Carolina -- the first time a sitting president had been upset in a primary. The victory reinvigorated Reagan. Although he did not win the 1976 Republican nomination, it set the stage for Reagan to capture the White House four years later.

Lou Cannon, a Reagan biographer, wrote that North Carolina's primary was "the turning point" of Reagan's political career.

"Without his performance in North Carolina, both in person and on television," Cannon wrote, "Reagan would have faded from contention ... and it is unlikely that he would have won the presidential nomination four years later."

I have always thought of Ellis as one of the Confederate generals whose portraits decorate his office wall -- iron-willed, shrewd enough to adopt new tactics and ruthless when he needed to be. I also think he is in politics for the right reasons -- he is man motivated by deeply held convictions and a love of country, not a man trying to advance his own career or feather his own nest. Whatever your politics, you have to respect that.

He made a lot of enemies, of course. His list of Democratic victims include Nick Galifianakis, John Ingram, Robert Morgan, Jim Hunt, Harvey Gantt and Terry Sanford. John Edwards was one of the few Democrats who got away.

Politics ain't beanbag, and Ellis could mix it up with the best. Ellis' exploitation of racial prejudice -- while hardly new to Southern politics -- put him on the wrong side of history.

At the N.C. Museum of Art on Wednesday, Ellis will be honored by Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian college in Michigan. Many of North Carolina's leading conservatives are expected to attend.

Think about the old man's influence. If Reagan had not been elected, would either of the George Bushes have made it to the White House? Ellis made a difference.