Atlas Network has lost a friend—a great champion of equal liberty for all. David Boaz was executive vice president of the Cato Institute, where from 1981 to 2024 he worked to share with the world the case for liberty—for peace, for justice, for the rule of law, and for voluntary cooperation—and to formulate and to advance concrete proposals to secure liberty and limited government. He was a close ally of Atlas Network, which worked with him and his colleagues at the Cato Institute on major conferences in many parts of the world, not only in the U.S., but in the (thankfully now defunct) USSR, in China, in Mexico, in Europe, and in Central Asia. His book The Libertarian Mind remains one of the finest contemporary statements of “the simple system of natural liberty” and is full of easily understood examples of how cooperative order can proceed without command. Its many translations have brought the ideas of liberty in clear form to people around the globe.
We share the grief of our colleagues at the Cato Institute, who have posted a tribute page about David. Like his hero William Wilberforce, David worked for his entire life for liberty for all. He led an exemplary life that is worthy of emulation. We mourn his passing and we are inspired by his example.
