David’s commitment to libertarian principles was so solidly rooted in reasoned analysis that he seemed sincerely perplexed when any intelligent, thoughtful person disagreed with his libertarian position on any issue. I was honored that he evidently considered me smart and reasonable enough that I should agree with these views, and he therefore seemed baffled in the (relatively few) instances when I did not. Over the many years of our colleagueship, David’s probing questions, insights, and arguments did modify some of my ideas, and they will continue to inspire me to engage in constant reexamination. In that meaningful way, I’ll always gratefully channel David—right along with John Stuart Mill!

—Nadine Strossen, former president, American Civil Liberties Union

David has been our intellectual godfather and superstar of the libertarian movement. Second to no one, he’s been responsible for injecting libertarian ideas into public discourse.

—Robert A. Levy, chairman emeritus, Cato Institute

In Book 8 of the Odyssey, Homer describes a person who shows his strength of mind by his power of speech: “When he comes to town, the crowds gather.” That was David Boaz. Alert, vigorous, ready for anything, intimately acquainted with the facts he needed, he was the most articulate advocate that any movement could hope to find. David was my friend for four decades, and he was a warm and helpful friend to the journal I edit, Liberty. I refuse to believe he isn’t with us still. His significance for the cause of freedom cannot be measured. His achievements will never be forgotten.

—Stephen Cox, distinguished professor emeritus, University of California, San Diego

The hardest I ever struggled not to laugh was over dinner with David Boaz on Saturday, August 28, 1993. David was despondent because, all week long, no one at Cato had as much as mentioned his upcoming 40th birthday. No party, no card; how could they have forgotten? It was no use to console him, which I pretended to do—all while fighting not to expel my drink through my nose. I pointed out that at least Andrea and Howie Rich and I would take him out for a celebratory drink the next day.

Of course, that’s not what happened Sunday. Instead, when David walked into Duke Ziebert’s, then Washington’s most famous restaurant, he was greeted by balloons, decorations, and a lusty “SURPRISE!” from over a hundred colleagues and friends. Ed Crane led the tributes, which were ample, and friends came from near and far.

I’m still laughing at the prank—and still cherish the memory of showing David so memorably that he was admired and loved.

—Jonathan Rauch, senior fellow, Brookings Institution

For five decades he worked to secure equal liberty for each and every human being. It was his life mission, to which he hewed with extraordinary steadfastness.… David Boaz is our inspiration. He never stopped. He never will, because when we fight for the rule of law, he is with us. He will always be with us.

—Tom Palmer, senior fellow, Cato Institute; George M. Yeager Chair for Advancing Liberty and executive vice president for international programs, Atlas Network

I last saw David before his illness at a garden party at Walter Olson’s home in 2022. David had been trying unsuccessfully to get Ed Crane to agree to be interviewed about the early history of the libertarian movement and his perspectives on what was happening to it. He thought if I were the interviewer, Ed might agree. I enthusiastically agreed to try (and I did, also unsuccessfully). It was classic David Boaz. On one dimension, he was, as always, being clinical and dispassionate. Ed had important material to contribute. On another dimension, unspoken, as always, David was being kind and compassionate. In my experience, that was David: a consistent Ayn Rand rationalist on the surface; underneath, not for public exhibition, caring and loyal.

—Charles Murray, Hayek emeritus scholar, American Enterprise Institute

At a Club for Growth meeting, I heard Marco Rubio talk about the beauty of free markets and I thought, “Finally, a politician who really gets it! He will fight for individual freedom!” I happened to share that thought with David. He replied, “It’s dangerous to fall in love with a politician. They will break your heart every time.” As usual, David was right.

—John Stossel, Stossel TV

I met David at Vanderbilt University in the early 1970s. Among many other things, he led our efforts to bring prominent speakers, such as then California governor Ronald Reagan and National Review founder and editor William F. Buckley Jr., to campus, which was no small feat given the prevailing hostility to free-market ideas. Despite being only one year older, David was my intellectual leader, mentor, and friend. He spent his entire life promoting liberty and made massive contributions to the cause.

—William B. Lacy, former director of President Ronald Reagan’s Office of Political Affairs

When I think of the most effective advocates of individual freedom in my generation, David Boaz is Number One, and there is no Number Two.

—Walter Olson, senior fellow, Cato Institute

David Boaz made me a libertarian.

It was October 1980. We were on the tarmac of the small airport outside Missoula, Montana. I made a wise-guy crack, and David turned it into a political education.

I was covering the presidential campaign for the Washington Post that fall, and I mentioned to my editor that I was getting bored. All the major candidates—Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, and John Anderson, a serious third-party contender—had reached the point where they gave the same speech over and over, several times a day. As I told my boss, I knew just about every sentence before they uttered it.

The editor responded with a laugh—and a good idea. “You know, we really ought to do a piece on that Libertarian Party guy. Why don’t you go out with him for a few days?”

And so I found myself flying around Idaho and Montana in a small plane with Ed Clark, the Libertarian candidate that year, and his brilliant young speechwriter—none other than David Boaz.

The plane would touch down in Boise or Butte or Billings, and we would ride in some local volunteer’s car to the auditorium or school gym where Clark would give a speech. I was impressed to see that Boaz produced a different talk for the candidate at each venue.

As the plane was landing at Missoula, Clark turned to Boaz and said, “Which speech should I give here?” David took a minute to think about it, so the wise-guy reporter—me—piped up: “Why don’t you tell them,” I said with maximum sarcasm, “how you Libertarians want to legalize heroin?”

To my astonishment, David pronounced this an excellent idea. He dug through his folder and handed Clark a file. “Yeah,” David said, “let’s do the Three Ps speech.”

We motored to the venue, and Clark opened his talk with a striking declaration. “Tonight I’m going to explain why government should stop regulating pot, porn, and prostitution,” he said. “And if you find yourself agreeing with me, whether you know it or not, you’re a libertarian.”

And then Clark launched into David’s defense of the Three Ps.

“Suppose a responsible adult wants to try marijuana?” Clark asked. “Why is that the government’s business? As John Stuart Mill said, ‘Over his own mind and his own body, the individual must be sovereign.’ What you put in your body should be up to you.

“As for pornography,” Clark continued, “do you really want some government bureaucrat telling you what books to read, what movies to see? Isn’t that your decision to make?”

With that, the candidate moved on to the third P. “Prostitution is one of the world’s oldest businesses,” Clark noted calmly. “And as long as it is a willing contract, a joint agreement between consenting adults, why should government get in the way?”

By this time, the audience in Missoula—as you might expect of a group of Montanans who had turned out for a Libertarian political rally—was cheering wildly.

And I, too, found myself nodding in agreement. In David Boaz’s fluid prose, it all made sense to me. Two weeks later, to my surprise, I found myself voting for Ed Clark for president.

Not long after that, David Boaz was one of the first scholars of a scrappy new organization called the Cato Institute. Over the next four decades, his books and speeches and columns set forth libertarian principles with the same clear and convincing logic that he applied to the Three Ps.

—T. R. Reid, author and former Washington Post journalist

CORRECTION: This letter originally stated that David Boaz was one of the founders of the Cato Institute. The letter has been corrected to reflect when David joined Cato.