David Boaz Death – David Boaz, longtime executive vice president at the Cato Institute, died this week at age 70 in hospice after a year‐long battle with cancer.
Who was David Boaz ?
David Boaz was Distinguished Senior Fellow and the former executive vice president of the Cato Institute, an American libertarian think tank. Boaz was born in 1953 in Kentucky. He studied at Vanderbilt University from 1971 to 1975, and as a young man was involved with economic conservative
Boaz was born in Kentucky in 1953 to a political family, with members holding the offices of prosecutor, congressman, and judge. He was thus the type “staying up to watch the New Hampshire primary when I was 10 years old,” as he said in a 1998 interview for my book Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement.
In the early to mid-1970s, Boaz was a young conservative activist, working on conservative papers at Vanderbilt University, where he was a student from 1971 to 1975. After graduation, he worked with Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), in whose national office he served in various capacities fro
The Cato Institute the passing of David Boaz.
We mourn the loss of David Boaz, a guiding force at the Cato Institute for 43 years. His dedication to liberty and individual rights shaped the libertarian movement, and his legacy will continue to inspire. David Boaz led an exemplary life.
To know him is to admire him and even to love him. Through him, so many people were introduced to the humane, decent, rational, and compassionate case for “the simple system of natural liberty.” So many successful and happy careers were launched.
many people were gently taught how to be effective promoters of their principles, to be good colleagues, and to be better people. So many tears are being shed for the loss of our guide, our inspiration, our friend.
David came from Kentucky and he never quite lost the Kentucky twang. He became active in the promotion of liberty in college. He embraced the principles of treating every human being with respect and the presumption of liberty, and those principles infused his thought and his actions until his last days.
My experience with David over the ensuing 23 years never deviated from the indelible impression he made on me that very first day. He was smart. He was serious. He dedicated his entire life to protecting and advancing liberty. He loved Cato. And, not least, he was a teacher.