David Boaz: An Appreciation

David Boaz has passed away after a long battle with cancer. David was a giant in the liberty movement and a huge inspiration to me personally over the past three decades.

We first met back in 1993 and I was immediately struck by what a remarkable communicator of ideas he was. He was an equally gifted writer and I always looked to his essays and books for inspiration to help improve my own work.

David first offered me a job in 1996 but it took me till 2000 to finally say yes. We used to have such fun fights about my writing style. He’d absolutely hammer me about my run-on sentences. (Guilty as charged!) But every time we sat down together for any reason, I’d use it as an opportunity to learn from him.

David had so much to teach — both in terms of substance and style — about how to communicate ideas. I very much enjoyed learning from him and I would always watch carefully as he spoke to audiences to see a true master in action. And when we spoke at the same event, I would always ask for his advice about how I could have done things better. I wonder how many tens (or hundreds?) of thousands of people personally heard David speak about liberty through the decades. He was always spreading the word somewhere.

David loved books and the books he wrote himself were particularly important to spreading the message of human liberty far and wide. One of my favorite things to do whenever I visit a used bookstore is to snap a picture of a book by someone I know and then send it to them to let them know where I found it. I would sometimes find David’s books on random shelves across the globe and send him a pic to tell him that his ideas were out there making a difference in the world. He would usually respond, “Well, if that was the case, then why did someone sell it!” But then I’d send him pictures of the inside chapters, all marked up and underlined to let him know that someone in this world really did take it all to heart. He made a difference to them, and to all of us.

I will forever be grateful for all David Boaz taught me and the rest of the world about the importance of human liberty. He will be missed, but never forgotten.