David Cay Johnston:
CLASS OF 1967
Soquel High SchoolClass of 1967
Soquel, CA
Branciforte Junior High SchoolClass of 1963
Santa cruz, CA
Old Mill Elementary SchoolClass of 1961
Mill valley, CA
Gault Elementary SchoolClass of 1961
Santa cruz, CA
Laurel Dell Intermediate SchoolClass of 1961
San rafael, CA
David Cay's Story
Life
Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for articles in The New York Times exposing unfairness in the tax code and failure of the IRS to enforce the law against business owners who bragged about not paying taxes (most of them eventually convicted and sent to prison for minimum of six years). Pulitzer finalist in 2000 and double finalist in 2003.
Currently writing "Johnston's Take" column for Tax Notes magazine and working on fourth book, THE FINE PRINT, ad teaching the law of the ancient world at Syracuse University College of Law and Whitman School of Management..
FREE LUNCH, my book about hidden subsidies and how "deregulation" has enriched a lucky few, became an immediate bestseller in January 2008.
PERFECTLY LEGAL, my book on how the tax system forces the middle class subsidize the super rich, became an immediate bestseller in January 2004. It won a medal as Investigative Book of the Year from Investigative Reporters & Editors.
Many other awards received during 40 years of reporting and (one year) editing for everything from hunting down a murderer the cops had failed to catch to exposes of a TV station's news manipulations, causing it to lose its license.
Reporting Career: The New York Times, 1995-2008; Philadelphia Inquirer, 1988-95 (one year as night business editor); Los Angeles Times 1976-88; Detroit Free Press 1973-76; San Jose Mercury News 1968-73; County News (Aptos, Calif.) and Valley Press (Felton, Calif.) 1966-68.
Author:
1. Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You With the Bill) (Penguin Portfolio Jan. 2008)
Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich -- And Cheat Everybody Else (Penguin Portfolio, Jan. 2004)
3. Temples of Chance (Doubleday, 1992) (as David Johnston)
Contributor of chapters and introductions to many other books.
Board chairman, American Family Resort Hotels LLC, business run by my old...Expand for more
est and youngest sons.
I lecture widely (American Program Bureau represents me).
Taught at U of So Cal 1980-88; UCLA Extension 1986.
Six years of college credit at seven schools, including U of Chicago grad school, Mich State and SF State, but no degree as I took mostly upper division and graduate courses.
Married (very happily!) to Jennifer Leonard since 1982. Jenn is president of the Rochester Area Community Foundation (which she built to $230 million assets) and a national leader in promoting ethical standards for foundations. We gave our daughters her last name. Molly Leonard, born 1985, graduated magna cum laude in classics major from Bryn Mawr and earned her law degree at the University of Toronto 2010. Kate Leonard, born 1990, is Wellesley College Class of 2012.
Six grown children from previous marriage 1966-79 to Sharon Snider (Soquel '66; she now goes by last name of Drace and teaches high school English in N.C.):
LesliAn, born 1967; Kendall (nee Susan) born 1969; Marke, born 1970; Amy & Andy, born 1972; Steven, born 1975. Amy is writing a book on Rod Serling's career. Five grandsons.
No children from marriage 1980-1980 to Gina (Mary Regina) Ryan.
We have a wonderful home three blocks outside of Rochester -- city of Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony and a great place to raise children --as well as a tiny apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. At the end of our street in Rochester is the Council Rock where a portion of the Iroquois confederation, a democracy which stretched from Nantucket to Toledo, held its annual political/religious meetings long before Europeans came to America. Came here in 1993 after living in suburban Philadelphia and Ocean City, NJ. Left California in 1988.
Movie rights to TEMPLES of CHANCE optioned and screenplay written in 2004 as "The Whale Hunter." I was a consultant previous year on an HBO movie project.
Life is wonderful and keeps getting better.
What have you been doing?
Register for Free to view all details!
Yearbooks
Register for Free to view all yearbooks!
Reunions
David Cay was invited to the
169 invitees
Register for Free to view all events!